Two Lost Years
by Thirsty Mama
Summary: This is the prequel to my story Knight Magic, it shows the first two years of the Harry Potter world that they missed and what would have happened if the two girls awoke in 1990 to join Harry's first year instead of 1993 in his third one. Also gives a deeper view to Artimis, the main girl, including her Boggart. Light Sexual references.
1. Where Are We?

Here is an add-on for my story 'Knight Magic' which is what would have happened during the first two years of Harry Potter if the two main characters had woken up in the Philosopher Stone timeline instead of the Prisoner of Azkaban's. There are some changes but also many familiar things, this story shows a little deeper to my main characters emotions and her thought pattern. Thank You~ Thirsty Mama (Warwolfgirl)

**Where are we?**

They awoke to the new world completely without a clue of what happened to them, one moment they were hiding from the sports group in the open drainage channel as Amie skipped out of school and the next they were wedged in an alley way that looked like it was from the old Victorian age. It had been rather quick to discover where they were after some hours of wandering and finding signs. They had appeared in Diagon Alley, as in the one from the books of Harry Potter. The two friends gazed around in excitement and terror, a few wizards and witches spotted them and thought them to be Muggle's.

It was here and because of those questioning thoughts towards the girls as they stared in amazement into a store with floating objects and alive toys, which Arthur Weasley himself found them. Events happened that led to Miki, the oldest of the girls, to tell lies swiftly. She changed her and her friend's names, and told a very believable lie about how they came from Australia and that they were homeless and parentless, that they had come to England hoping for a better chance via stuffing themselves in the cargo bay of a plane. The ginger haired wizard took them both to the Ministry through Floo fire at their words, a frown on his face from thinking about how they were parentless and alone, and also not in England legally.

The two girls looked around in even more amazement as they were led through halls made from smooth marble, they were to meet the Minister himself in a small hearing to figure out how to handle the two strange girls and work out if they were Witch or Muggle. Miki and Amie, now named Artimis and Mythal were seated in front of the Minister and went stiff as he examined them both carefully. Mythal in her nervousness twirled her dyed cherry red hair while the older girl, Artimis twisted her eye shaped topaz ring around her middle finger as her own nervous twitch.

For almost an hour they were interviewed and examined by an older witch to see if they were witches themselves and not Muggle's who had accidentally come across the magical realm, both girls were given small mind tasks such as releasing sparks from their fingers. The two girls peered at each other with surprise, as they were discovered to be witches. Suddenly the conversations went to how to deal with the two girls who had no clue how to handle magic, "The two Knight's can come to Hogwarts to learn, Minister Fudge." Said a soft voice in the background as one of the Ministry members mentioned the dangers of having two girls untrained in the art of Magic.

Everyone in the room spun to the door to see the silver haired wizard watching with his twinkling eyes, Arthur had informed him of the two girls and their predicament the second they were put into the hearing. Dumbledore moved to the two Australian's side and placed a hand on either ones shoulder protectively, they both looked at each other as their bodies stiffened in awe and anticipation. The Minister paused before nodded, "I trust you know what you are doing… these two ladies will be registered under the British Ministry and may go with you to Hogwarts of Witchcraft and Wizardry." No one spoke out of turn to change the minister's mind as paper was signed and the two left with Dumbledore.

Outside the hearing room Artimis turned to Dumbledore, "Thank you sir… uh, why did you want us to go to Hogwarts?"

"You need to learn magic and Hogwarts is the perfect school for you to learn, I am also more then happy to allow you to enter as a special case even if you are much older then the other students we can maybe put side classes for you… like a Muggle university maybe?" The old wizard's eyes sparkled as he took them through the green flames of the floo powder to the Headmaster Tower, "The year is already a few days ahead, but it will be fine to squeeze little Mythal into the first year's classes."

Mythal nodded with a frown while looking at Artimis at the thought of how the older girl said she was 11, though she easily pulled it off as she was small for a 15 year old. The eighteen year old looked blankly ahead as she listened to Dumbledore. The old wizard levitated down the Sorting Hat and placed it on Mythal's head first, "Slytherin!" Both girls snorted in humor at the choice, Mythal could be very Slytherin when she wanted to.

The Hat was placed on Artimis' fuzzy brown head, "Hm… there are a few places you can go. Slytherin for your resourcefulness, Gryffindor for your chivalry and nerve or Hufflepuff for your loyalty and patience… Hufflepuff is the most probable but I sense you don't want there, do you…"

"Not really, I can't stand yellow… can I go into Gryffindor or Slytherin?" After a pause as the thought transferred to the Sorting Hat, it finally yelled out the choice of 'Gryffindor'. Mythal looked unbelieving, she thought Artimis would be the most possible one to be put into Slytherin. The hat was returned to his shelf, Dumbledore summoned the two heads of their chosen houses through the fireplace.

McGonagall and Snape entered, one dressed in her sleeping robes while the other was still dressed in his day garments just minus his signature robe. "Ah, Professors… You have a couple of latecomers from Australia joining your houses. Mythal Knight will be in Slytherin…" Dumbledore waved a hand at Mythal, the two professors eyed the bright red haired girl curiously, then at the oldest; Artimis seemed to shrink under their eyes as they scrutinized her. "I will explain about Artimis Knight in the morning and how she will be taught. She is in Gryffindor house now."

Before Artimis and Mythal left with their new house heads, Artimis turned to Dumbledore and pointed to the lemon drops on his desk, "May I?" At his nod and small smile she took large handfuls and gave Mythal a shrug at the girls 'do you have to?' frown, "Need my daily fix of sugar, doctors orders."

"You imaginary doctor you mean." Scoffed Mythal before she followed an uncaring Snape down to the dungeons.

Artimis followed McGonagall upwards through the castle to the Gryffindor Tower as she held the sweets in her palm and eating some on the trip; inside the tower she was placed into an empty room that looked like it hadn't been used in years but still kept clean by the house elves. A boggart was even living in one of the bedside tables. McGonagall looked at it with firm lips, but it was the best she could give the girl at the current moment.

"It is fine, Professor… I don't mind it." Artimis laughed as she examined a bed while the older woman checked for anything missed by the elves, McGonagall left to return to her own bedroom not before warning Artimis not to touch the rattling cupboard. Quietly Artimis lowered herself into the clean bed with a soft sigh after removing her shoes, long black woolen cardigan and cotton shirt. She placed them folded on the bedside table with her side bag on top and the yellow sweats on top of that. It took hours for her to sleep as her mind worried about what happened and what was going to happen, and the horrible noise the boggart was making.

After Mythal was introduced to her new fellow years and had her first lessons with them, including Harry Potter himself, Artimis was introduced to the teachers as a private study student through the day when they had no classes. The teachers were all curious as they never heard of an older student but didn't mind as the girl instantly ploughed into everything they showed her with questions and interest.

Then when Professor Quirrell entered, Artimis felt the hairs on the back of her neck and on her arms stand up stiffly, he looked at her with almost fearful eyes and his eye twitched crazily as he tightly held the books to his chest like a nervous school kid entering his new classroom late, "H-Hello, I am P-P-Professor Quirrell of the D-Defense Against the D-D-Dark arts."

"Ah, hello Professor… I am Artimis Knight." She said in in a slow and confused voice as the twitchy man began to lower himself into the seat across from her and lost his grip on the paper and books he was holding, they flew everywhere causing him to stop mid sitting to recover them. He quickly rushed to catch the paper that floated around in the gentle breeze, Artimis moved from her seat and knelt down to pick up the books from the ground. As she placed them on the table, Quirrell stuttered out his apology and nervously bowed to her. "Its fine, sir… no hard feelings." Artimis waved her arms in an attempt to calm the man's heightened distress.

With pale blue eyes filled with nervous fear, the man looked at her almost as if he had expected her to laugh at him and his uselessness like other students or adults did when they first met him or discovered his incompetence. After a pause he relaxed somewhat and returned the paper to its original pile on top of the books. "T-Thank You M-Miss Knight. This is your s-school books and some n-notes, P-P-Professor McGonagall will h-have your timetable finished by now…" Artimis added the books and paper to her growing pile beside her on the table with a small smile as she patiently listened to him.

"Thank you sir… look forward to your lessons." She gave him an awkward nod; Quirrell returned the nod in a curt twitchy fashion before rushing from the room.

Snape pushed in through the door seconds later after the nervous man had charged down the hall past him with embarrassment reddening all over his face. The Potion's Master gave Artimis a scowling look as he dropped the books onto the table with a bang, causing Artimis to flinch and her brow to twitch almost like Quirrell's eye did. "Study these from back to front, I don't want to waste my precious time trying to teach your pathetic mind in the art of Potion-Making if you don't care to try." He didn't even bother to introduce himself.

"Ur… yes sir… I look forward to learning potions from you?" The awkward voice seemed to have permanently stuck to Artimis after meeting the nervous Quirrell. She didn't even seem phased with Snape's insult to her intelligence level, already knowing she really wasn't the brightest person, which was why Ravenclaw had not been offered to her, but maybe that would change with magic lessons instead of boring Muggle lessons. Almost as quickly as he came, Snape left again with a dramatic flick of his long robe and a glare with his black eyes.

A few minutes later and McGonagall arrived again to check up on Artimis since Snape was the last to see the new student, the Gryffindor Head entered to discover Artimis already scanning through the Potions and DADA books with a blank expression as she got deeply engrossed with the words. "Do you look forward to those two classes, Miss Knight?"

"Hm? Oh, I guess so… maybe a little nervous with Potions, but the Professor seemed like he really knows his subject even if he is very… intimidating?" Artimis struggled for a word to explain what she thought of Snape, the word she came up with made McGonagall chuckle.

"Only Albus Dumbledore ever said that, or Slytherin's who aced in Severus' lessons flawlessly. What did you think of Professor Quirrell?"

"He seems nervous about something all the time, but the nervous ones are great with defenses and can be very quick when problems arise because of their paranoia… I look forward to see how he teaches." McGonagall smiled at the answer, Quirrell didn't have many students rooting for him and hoped having someone interested in his lessons might liven him up slightly.

"Here is your timetable, you have History of Magic with Binn's tomorrow first up then Potion's directly afterwards. At lunchtime you and your cousin will go to Diagon Alley to procure a wand with Snape after Potions, Transfiguration and then charms is one when you return. I have also left some shirts and a robe up in your room for you to try on, during this week I will take you and Mythal shopping." Artimis nodded as she took the timetable and read through it, some days were set up to look very boring, such as tomorrow morning with the renowned monotonous lessons from the ghost teacher, Binn's.

But she was very excited about the idea of getting a wand.

**Wands and Classes**

History of Magic had been boring as expected and within seconds Artimis had fallen asleep even as she struggled to stay awake for she found the subject itself interesting, but Binn's voice droning on and on seemed to turn her brain to sleep, it was worse because she had such a terrible sleep through the night. She slept only for a few minutes and woke up half way through the lesson with a worrying start; Artimis pinched herself every time she drifted in fear that she would sleep through Snape's lesson by accident or end up being late. She didn't want to start out on the wrong step with the dungeon Professor.

After an hour of boring words, Artimis rushed through the halls while stifling a yawn. With some trouble the second she hit the dungeon tunnels, she finally found her way to Snape's office and classroom later then she had wanted. Snape glared the instant she entered with her long hair ruffled from sleeping on the desk and her rubbing her head in frustration every time she got lost, "Late on the first day? Ten points from Gryffindor."

"S… Sorry… terrible sense of direction… turned left instead of right in the second hall in the dungeons…" Artimis was out of breath from all the running in her attempt to get to the classroom on time.

"Excuses, very Gryffindor of you." Snape sneered as he waved his wand so words scrawled across the blackboard without a sound. Artimis had the urge to tell him that the Hat wanted her sorted into Slytherin as well but held back as she fell into a seat close to the front to catch her breath, she wasn't used to running and her lungs hated her for it.

The lesson dived right into practical work after Snape gave her an introduction to Potions and some theory notes about the potion she was to make so she didn't stuff anything up, and she loved it. No boring theory work for an entire hour of a lesson, no it was hands on experience right on the first day. Artimis followed the potions method as best as she could with Snape watching from his desk, the lesson was more enjoyable then Binn's lesson and Artimis sang quietly to 'Hey Brother' as she finished stirring the potion until it went the colour it was supposed to according to Snape's notes. "Is this right sir?"

The Professor stood and examined the work, he didn't see anything to deduct from the work and tightened his lips. "It is adequate for a first try, but it is a simple potion and you took longer then needed." He spelled some of the potion into a vial to study before vanishing the cauldron, "I believe your cousin will be joining us in a moment." And just as he said it, Mythal rushed in. "Ah, on time… unlike someone else." Snape sent Artimis a sour look, which was returned with an innocent expression as the brunette pretended not to understand what he meant.

A pause, Mythal looked from Snape to Artimis before smirking at the older girl in understanding. "Did you get lost again?"

"Shut up! I don't get lost all the time…"

"It is extraordinary how easily you get lost, Art." Mythal sniggered, Snape scoffed in the background at the young Slytherin's words, "Maybe you should tattoo the Hogwarts map on yourself?"

"Hogwarts is always changing so unless it is a magical tattoo… magic tattoo, mmm." Artimis rubbed her chin, as she got distracted for she now wanted a magic tattoo now. "Maybe I should get that snake-dragon around my ankle like I always wanted…" She muttered absentmindedly while forgetting where she was.

The words were ignored as Snape took them through the floo network in his office to Diagon Alley, the stepped out into the pub and walked to the brick wall after dusting the ash from their clothes, Artimis went into a sneezing fit that lasted all the way to the wall and each sneeze caused their professor's eye to twitch in annoyance. Snape opened the gap and led them to the wand store in the desire to get this over with, "Sir, we don't have money…" Mythal said as Artimis' voice was currently out of order.

"The Headmaster gave me enough to spend on you two for wands." Snape's words were curt and uncaring as they walked into the dusty store which didn't help Artimis one bit; Olivander peered around the shelves with a smile at a loud sneeze told him he had guests and started to find them a wand along the many boxes.

After many tries both Knight's finally found their wands, Artimis admired her pure white Cedar wand that unlike Mythal's had no pretty patterns carved into it besides a faint snake like twist in the handle with scale hatches inside the twist as a grip to stop it from slipping from her hand, but did have a gentle sweet smell to it almost like flowers. The core was a Phoenix feather and it was 11 inches.

Mythal's wand was lovely dark red Rosewood with even darker grains and had carved in vines around the handle and half way across the wands main shaft, the core was a Unicorn hair and was 9 and a half inches. The cherry-red haired girl looked at Artimis' wand then hers, "Yours is bigger then mine…"

"Damn right it is." Artimis laughed as Snape handed over the coins to the wand maker before they left quickly to return to Hogwarts. Inside his office the Potions master was quick to kick them both out with a snarl, the Knight's rushed from the room while giggling almost girlishly at their new wands, they were excited to use them. 

The last two lessons were rather interesting; Artimis' wand was easy to learn many spells with but surprisingly temperamental and sometimes sulked for a few minutes when she cast a spell incantation wrong. McGonagall and Flitwick both thought it was humorous watching the girl attempt to get her wand to do what she wanted at first, but she always finally succeeded at the spell she had tried to cast after a few attempts.

In the afternoon, the two out of place girls sat together outside in the courtyard to avoid people staring at Artimis like she was an ogre while eating and chatting about their wands. Apparently Mythal and her wand hit it off instantly much to Artimis' disappointment, the younger girl thought it was hilarious that the older ones wand was so bad tempered. Artimis had such a calm and patient personality that it was strange her wand was so merciless in personality.

They both ate quickly before the students were taken to their house dorms, the two separated into their groups and returned to their rooms. Artimis looked at the cupboard containing the boggart with a frown; she won't deal with it when alone just in case, she had no idea what her fear would turn out to be.

**Why so Temperamental?**

It was a month since the two Knights came to the Harry Potter world; a whole month had passed when Artimis came across the first of the Golden Trio, before they became a trio, a very lonely Hermione was walking through the hall with eyes that were rimmed with tears. "Hey, are you alright? Hermione Granger wasn't it?"

"… You're Artimis Knight? I am fine…" Hermione's voice cracked and the tears escaped her eyes, "No actually… I am not fine…" Artimis was quick to move and pull the girl into a hug with soothing sounds.

"There, there… do you want to tell me what happened? Did someone do something mean to you." She spoke calmly and gently like she used to when dealing with sad children. Somewhere around the corner, Snape had been on his way to his room when he came across them. He stayed hidden behind the corner to listen to the older Gryffindor as she calmed the younger one.

"T-They called me… they called me a Mudblood and insulted my parents…"

"What the hell is a Mudblood? Sounds like a rather fancy cocktail…" That caused Hermione to release a small giggle despite her despair, "Its just a word, don't let it get to you… bullies always try to make themselves seem perfect by belittling those who are far more superior then them."

"Did you get bullied to in a Muggle school before coming here?"

"Lots of times in the earlier years because I was such an awkward person, always reading and sitting silently in the back of the room drawing little scribbles in the back of my school books… I suffered kicks in the ankles during science, pencils and rubbers being thrown at the back of my head during math's… the insults during breaks by girly groups. It hurt, especially the physical harm. But I never let them get to me because all I thought was how they all looked like orange clowns, all that makeup… I go el natural because they looked so ridiculous." Another giggle escaped Hermione as she pictured the image of girls with orange makeup and lips painted like a clown, "Feel better?"

"A bit, thank you…"

"No problem, sweetie… ugh. Do you know the way to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, by the way?"

"That's many halls back that way," The fuzzy haired girl pointed the way Artimis had come from causing the older witch to pull a horrified face, "You must have turned down the wrong hallway."

"Oh. My. God! Am I mentally incapable of knowing directions or something? I am already a minute late!" And with that she was off like a shot down the hall with a look of determination on her lips. Hermione giggled on her way down the halls, her mood highly improved now.

Around the corner, Snape had listened with a frown at the insult used towards Muggle-born witches and wizards; the memory of his own misuse of it during his student years towards a close friend hit him hard. He approved of Artimis' way of handling the problem easily, but shook his head at the girl's stupidity at getting lost so easily and continued on his way to his dungeons while making certain to pass Quirrell's classroom to hear the girls reaction. 

Artimis found the classroom and she entered it while huffing. Quirrell looked startled at her disheveled appearance, her brown hair was all over the place after her hairband snapped. "I… Am… Sorry…" She said through breaths, Quirrell shook his hands nervously as if fanning away her apologies.

"It is f-f-fine… what h-happened, Miss K-Knight?"

"Turned down wrong hall twice, AGAIN! First Professor Snape's lesson and now yours…" Artimis stood straight up and took a deep almost meditation like breath before Quirrell quickly offered a chair, she fell into it in relief as a headache formed. "My CFS does not like me right now…"

"CFS? W-W-What is t-that?"

"Chronic Fatigue Syndrome… a physical problem that hates exercise, sitting still for long times and sleeping…" With that quick explanation the lesson started, Quirrell taught her Lumos and other spells, not worried about the lost time, as Artimis' wand seemed to like this lesson very much. A couple of times her wand acted up on the Lumos spell, almost as if playing around with his wielder.

"Y-Your wand is very e-emotional…" Quirrell stuttered after the spell failed again, her wand was releasing hot sparks, which burned Artimis' hands. He quickly cast a different spell and hovered his wand over the burns, which felt almost like freezing cold ice on painful cooking burns.

"Temperamental more like it… thank you sir…" Artimis calmly said as she tried again to cast the spell after her hands were smoothed, "Thank the lords for my godly quantity of patience… I will get its loyalty one day or another I swear by…!" Almost as if saying 'NEVER' her wand released a small farting sound as the spell was attempted again, Artimis' brow twitched in annoyance but didn't loose her temper while Quirrell smirked where she couldn't see him.

Behind the door, Snape sneered as he finally got an idea for their next potions lesson. Something involving a small spell to finish the brew would suffice in getting the girl to be unhinged enough for him to get in a couple insults and pilfer a few points from her house.

The next day was Potions and this time Artimis remembered the way and arrived a minute early, Snape seemed to look disappointed to loose that chance to dock points, "Finally on time, lets hope you can keep this phenomenon going." Artimis sent his back a glare before she pulled out her books to start the first half of theory before the practical.

Finally finished, Snape gave her the next task on the board and what page the full method was in the book. With a habit taught to her via Hospitality at high school, Artimis read all the way through the ingredients, gathered them all and read the full method. She frowned at the end; Snape almost sniggered, as he knew she was reading the part where she needed a spell cast by her wand to finish the potion.

It was slightly disappointing when Artimis didn't complain or mention her wands temper and disobedience; instead she got to work right away with Snape observing. Unlike the last lesson she seemed to work faster now that she understood where the ingredients were all stored. Artimis didn't seem to care as she began to pull out the spleen of a goat from a jar, for a second she had a look of faint repulse that curled her nose up as she held the slimy and smelly organ, before she dealt with it as if it was raw chicken or fish that she had handled many times in Hospitality and placed it into her potion.

With a grimace she looked at the slime on her fingers while wondering how to get it off without leaving her potion unattended, after a small pause Artimis simply shrugged and continued on until she finally finished with the ingredients. Quickly she rinsed her hands before taking up her wand, Snape watched firmly as the girl looked at her wand cautiously. Looking at her eyes he could easily hear her thoughts of 'don't you dare blow it up…' before she followed the spells instructions, which were in the margin of the book.

The spell was cast with a hiss, and both student and teacher, who moved to lean over the cauldron, watched the potions surface, waiting to see if it had failed. But much to Artimis' relief, and Snape's disappointment, the potion turned the perfect colour showing its success. The potion was vialed like the last one for testing while Artimis sighed in relief and pumped her fist in triumph when Snape's back was turned, as she tried to stand upright but her whole body seemed to cramp up causing her face to freeze to an expression of pain. "What is your problem now, Miss Knight?" The professor snapped as he turned to see her not moving.

"Just a moment, sir…" CRACK! She forced her body to stand; the cracking sound was from her spine after being forced to straighten up. Snape seemed to flinch at the sound while Artimis released a loud sound of relief, "Sorry, body didn't like me hunching over for so long…"

"You're dismissed. Be sure not to get lost next lesson as well…" Artimis nodded and left quickly after packing away all her books and papers.

**TROLL!**

"TROLL IN THE DUNGEON!" The Great Hall went quiet as Quirrell rushed inside with a look of terror as he screamed while running between the tables, "There's a troll in the dungeons… thought you ought to know…" Then he fainted, the second he hit the ground with a loud bang, everyone in the room began to scream besides the teachers, Mythal and Artimis, who was enjoying her meal before the disturbance. Dumbledore's voice was loud and clean as he called for silence and calm. The prefects were ordered to lead the students to their dorms, while everyone began to file out Artimis grabbed a plateful of food before following.

"Artimis, have you seen Hermione?" Ron and Harry rushed over to her as she ate a toffee off her plate calmly, they had noticed the girl they thought as annoying was not in the hall at the time.

"No?"

"She was crying in the girl's toilets last I saw…" Sniffed another girl in disinterest that was close to them enough to overhear, both boys looked at each other before rushing away. Artimis was quick to keep up with them; outside she looked impartial by inside she worried for Hermione and pondered why she was crying. A sound caught in her ears as they ran through the halls and she threw her meal behind her with a soft clang then quickly she dived in front of the boys to stop them passing the wall of the corner and pulled them to the wall, her hands covered their mouths to keep them from crying out. The troll passed right before them without even seeing them and Ron whimpered and the troll wedged himself through a large doorway as he seemed to follow something the three humans couldn't hear or smell.

"Wasn't the troll supposed to be in the Dungeons?" Ron whispered in terror when his mouth was uncovered, before the two boys could continue on past Artimis who was staring at the remains of her meal on the ground where she had thrown it to pull the boys back, a familiar scream echoed, they looked at each other in realization; the troll just entered the girl's bathroom.

The three rushed into the room just as the troll raised his club to smash at Hermione again from where she cowered in the corner, "Hey Ugly!" Harry yelled out, the troll paused and spun slowly in stupid confusion. Artimis stood in front of the boys as to protect them, her hands shook as she held up the remains of a chicken wing she had picked up from the ground.

"Here boy, come this way. There we go, a nice piece of chicken all for you, yes it is!" Beside her, Ron and Harry ushered Hermione to crawl towards them under the sinks as the morsel of food distracted the troll while Artimis spoke like she was speaking to a dog she was trying to train. It didn't last long, the troll noticed Hermione moving and raised his club as if planning to bat away an insect. Harry acted before Artimis and cast a spell at the troll's foot causing it to howl in pain.

That caught its attention again; it spun at the three near the entrance and swung the massive club down. Artimis shoved the boys out of the way either side and leapt out of the way, the club hit the ends of her hair causing them to slap almost painfully on her neck and the sharp edges of the wooden club dragged down her back causing her to cry out in pain as it cut into her skin slightly. Harry grabbed the club as the troll lifted it again, the young boy landed around the trolls neck causing it to panic for a moment.

After a struggle Harry was pulled off and his wand was stuck up the trolls nose in his squirming, Artimis groaned as she tried to get to her feet as the troll held Harry in preparation to hit him with the club, "Ron, use the levitation spell!" The ginger haired boy snapped to attention at the older girls sharp tone.

Under the sink, Hermione used her hand to mimic the wand movement for Ron to finally get it right. The troll looked up as its club was gone from its hand before it could swing at Harry; the heavy object fell onto the troll's head and knocked it out with a loud hollow clunk. The sound was rather hollow, and then the large body hit the floor close to where Artimis was slowly pulling herself to her feet with a groan of pain.

The three, who were now becoming the future legendary Golden Trio, laughed in relief while a group of teachers along with Dumbledore rushed it. "Oh Dear, Artimis are you alright." McGonagall helped Artimis to her feet and lifted her shirt high enough to see the cuts on the girls shoulder blades, "Come with me, we need those cuts taken care of…" The old woman seemed flabbergasted at the sight of Artimis' tattoo but didn't comment on it. From the doorway Snape and Quirrell had their heads tilted to the side to examine it before realizing what they were doing and straightening again with blank expressions as McGonagall and Artimis passed them to head to the school hospital.

**Mirror Rose**

It was Christmas when Harry opened a surprise package with the Invisibility cloak that had formally belonged to his father during his year in Hogwarts. Artimis went to bed early that night for she was exhausted due to the shocking cold that froze her up and burned at her joints, but the next night she had sat out in the common room for some time staring into the flames after reading through her potions book. Harry and Ron walked past and froze when she coughed, similar to how she believed Umbridge would, from her place on the couch for they didn't even see her in their excitement, "What adventure are you two going off to without me?" They grinned and let her join them on their little rule breaking exploration through the castle.

What Harry had wanted to show Ron was a giant mirror he discovered on Christmas night when testing out the cloak against the teachers, Artimis looked at it from a distance cautiously but curiosity bit at her. 'Curiosity killed the cat…' She knew what the mirror was; it was the one that showed what ones heart desired the most. Harry tried to show Ron his parents, but the ginger boy only saw himself winning the Grand Cup and being Head Boy.

"Art, what do you see?" Artimis stood forward and looked inside nervously wondering what her heart desired the most, through the glass she saw her own beaming face with four people flanking her. Her parents and sister waved out at her, while a faceless man dressed in full black and shadows held out a red rose for her smiling reflection self to take.

"My own family…" Harry frowned in confusion; the mirror did not show their future for both their parents were either dead or out of their reach. The three returned silently to the dormitory under the cloak after a close call with Mrs. Norris and Filch as they entered into the room following the sound of voices. They sat for a moment in front of the fire to question what they saw before going to bed.

With a yawn, Artimis went into her bedroom and frowned as the boggart rattled the cupboard once again rather loudly. She was always forgetting about it the next day even though it kept her awake for hours each night with its racket.

Quickly, she dressed into her pajamas and crawled into the four-poster bed and slowly fell asleep after an hour of listening to the boggart. Her thoughts were on her parents and sister, and the story behind the mysterious man with the red rose.

'Curiosity killed the cat… but satisfaction brought it back.'

**End Chapter 1**

It starts of boring and simple because you should all know how it happened if you had read my main storyline.

If you did read the original story then you would know that Artimis was a werewolf in it, but here she is not. In my mind she becomes one between second year and third year but this story is just showing the first two years that I skipped past for the main story.


	2. Villain's and Heroes

**Villains and Heroes**

"Mother of…!" Artimis slipped once more in the snow but stopped herself from falling to the hard ground, Mythal was stumbling around as well but seemed to handle herself easier as they walked through the courtyard with the trio.

"Are you two alright?" Ron mumbled through his filled mouth as he munched on a chewy toffee from the Grand Hall, he looked at them as if they were cursed or possessed. Hermione sent him a disgusted glare at his full mouth before turning back to what Artimis was going to say.

"No! First time in the snow… besides the time I was a toddler and I cant bloody remember that!" Artimis snapped angrily as she walked with arms and legs spread out in a funny fashion.

"It didn't snow in Australia?" Behind Artimis, Hermione asked the question in curiosity with hands up in terror of the older girl falling back onto her.

"Only high in the mountains, most of Australia is like a desert in its weather… dry and hot during the day and like ice at night. It's hell on Earth really…"

"Sounds scary…" Harry shivered at the thought; he liked the cold of England very much and loved the snow, as it was the only time he was able to go outside without Dudley chasing him to bully him, who hated the cold with a passion.

Both Australian's nodded their heads in agreement at that comment as Australia was rather scary, but they were both proud of their home country and missed it at times. Especially now as they tried to swim through freezing cold snow and ice. Other students watched the pair with small giggles but seemed to find Artimis more amusing, laughter that exploded into full-blown hilarity as Artimis slipped and fell on her ass with a painful crack. "AGH, THE PAIN IT BURNS!"

Professor Quirrell, who had just walked around the corner with Snape following after lunch in the staffroom, released a small sharp awkward laugh at the scene, which he covered his mouth to and looked around in embarrassment. The whole Trio was needed to help Artimis to her feet as Mythal was too far gone in her laughter to help, the older girls face was red in humiliation and scrunched up in pain. Mythal and Draco leaned against each other as they were in hysterical laughter, Snape's lip twitched in dark humor at Artimis' pain and her awkward expression.

He looked forward to using this during the lessons to unnerve her even more so then usual.

Another DADA lesson with Quirrell after the Christmas Holidays began. Artimis seemed to be handling her wand better now after trying to gain its loyalty for months, it was still temperamental and only seemed to like certain classes like DADA, Potions and Transfiguration. For Charm's it seemed to be all like 'Meh, whatever' and everything else it acted up almost as badly as Peeve's did towards Filch.

Today's lesson was finished swiftly with Artimis perfecting a handful of spells and some theory; Quirrell clapped his hands in a twitchy fashion at the end of the lesson. "It seems y-your wand has l-l-lost some of its d-dislike t-toward you, Miss K-K-Knight."

"Yes, still rages at me for certain things though." Artimis packed up her things and swung the bag over her shoulder, "Thank you for the lesson, Sir. See you next class."

"O-O-Of course, M-Miss K-K-Knight… good bye." Quirrell nervously returned to his desk to finish marking some of his student's works, Artimis left to run to her Potion's lesson directly afterwards. She had to walk across the courtyard carefully to not slip on the icy surface, inside the dungeons she almost had to tippy toe to not slip on the smooth ground as the ice melted beneath her black safety like boots.

On time once again, Artimis placed her bag on the desk she used and caught herself as her feet slipped slightly. While she steadied herself, Snape placed up what pages she was to copy from the textbook for the day as study notes. "Do try not to stomp around the classroom, Miss Knight. And don't get water all over the floor, you might break something of mine with your clumsy footing…" He almost sniggered as he felt Artimis give him a hard look when his back was turned, she didn't give him the pleasure of a returned comment as she pulled out her books and began to write.

Behind his desk, Snape marked homework returned to him after the Holidays while every so often looking up to make certain his single person class was still working. Artimis had her eyes constantly down while scribbling the words down, she remembered doing the same things back when she went to school in her real world. She always finished early because she sped wrote, but her words were rather messy so she tried her hardest to write slower so Snape could at least read her words, after all she knew he would read them over her shoulder if he was in cruel comment mode today.

After half an hour as Artimis had expected, Snape moved to hover over her to examine what she was writing. He frowned at the handwriting and squinted to work out a word that looked like a different language, "You writing is very inadequate, weren't you taught how to write properly in this so called Muggle school you keep bragging about."

"Muggle high schools have a thing called the computer, Sir. The only physical writing ever done was on sticky notes for family members or friends, shopping lists and the occasional paragraph during classes and most of the time it was using a pencil or a pen and not a quill. Or I wrote comments about characters I created…" Artimis replied in an uncaring voice as she put most of her attention on not accidentally writing Snape's words as they whispered into her mind in the background and tried to mix with the words in the textbook.

"'Characters I created…'" Snape quoted her word causing Artimis to pause before she made a mistake in her work; she peered up at him with a small frown towards his sudden curiosity to the things she said. But she welcomed the chance to rest her hand for a moment.

"Yeah both my father and me aspired to be novelists. Everything I watched, read or played I would practice creating characters to go into those fictional worlds… sounds strange I know, but it was worthy practice for both writing and drawing." She rubbed her wrist to try and get rid of the familiar pain that throbbed in the tendons, "I also used to look at people I knew and tried to describe them and over exaggerate things to make them stand out in a story."

"Really, and if you were to write about me how would you exaggerate?" Snape sniffed, he was thinking Artimis was full of nothing but hot air. She didn't look like the type to sit down and write a full on novel with her rather childish personality, more like the type to read one for a few lines before getting bored… or go outside to do something completely senseless as she seemed to do often in Hogwarts, numerous times he caught her searching the school after lessons to try and work out if it had a 'secret swimming pool' as she quoted it.

At the comment and the daring tone in his voice, Artimis turned to take him fully into her sights to think of a way to describe him without making him angry with her and take away points… or treat her worse the he already did. "I would exaggerate enough to show your intimidating, as many of your younger students have mentioned to me often," Snape smirked at that thought but Artimis continued on, "Maybe exaggerate the hair as that's the first feature people mention when trying to describe you, way you walk and the offending words to students you dislike to give you a more frightening nature to readers. Also maybe play up on your IQ level, the most fear-provoking people are usually very crafty… so you probably would make a good villain, or a rival to the hero in a novel… now that I think about it…" Snape's lip twitched, he didn't know how to take Artimis' words as she examined him. Obviously she did know a thing or two about books and people, and what place they might belong in the story line.

"And if you were to write about yourself?" Snape was curious now to see how she would react about speaking of herself, he expected Artimis to raise all the good things about herself like all Gryffindor's did just to make herself look like the hero.

"Maybe exaggerate my ability to get lost, moderate intelligence and my clumsiness… and short temper. Maybe a few decent things like my patience… Really, to write about myself is harder then with other people because I don't exactly pay much attention to my self… its harder to observe my movements as well, sir. I guess in a book I would make a good side character to the hero, or the comic relief minion of the main villain." Now that was Snape's least probable answer, Artimis seemed so ready to make her worst qualities stand out more then her good. That was something very non Gryffindor, something he couldn't really place in any other house.

"A short temper you say? Weren't you priding yourself on your patience?"

"Yes, I have a bad temper. But it is usually reserved for idiots… or used to be for my mother and..." Artimis' words broke off there before she said the word 'sister' for a moment before continuing; "I also loose patience if I fail something over and over. For example my wand, I was so very close to storing it in a vase of freezing water just to see how it liked it." The conversation went dry at that and Artimis returned to her work, Snape returned to his desk and finished marking for the rest of the lesson and barely said anything when it finished. Artimis left swiftly after placing her notes on the desk away from the other piles of student works as to not let it get in the way.

"Good bye sir…" And without another word she left the room. Snape paused and opened her book to the last page she had been writing in, along the margin she had writing a small quote that she seemed to favor as it was written rather neatly compared to the other writing on the page, 'The Villain is the more greater and sometimes most misunderstood presence in a story.'

A frown went across his face as he remembered what Artimis had said about him, she had said he would make a perfect villain in a story yet wrote down that a villain was the most important of characters. Snape had no idea what Artimis was implying with her words and decided not to think much upon it, at least at the moment. Maybe with a bottle of Fire-Whiskey in his hand he could work out this little riddle she gave him inadvertently.

**What Day Is It?**

More months passed since Christmas and the discovery of the mirror, Ron had his 12th birthday with many sweets and classes went by normally as Artimis and her wand slowly began to work together better. One day after Artimis finished the last lesson, which was DADA with Quirrell, for the day she went to meet up with Mythal and the others in their potions class. She went inside as they cleaned and got a frantic look from the redheaded girl as she rushed to Artimis' side. Draco and his two lackeys slowed down their packing to eavesdrop on their female friend.

"I am so sorry! I forgot what day it was yesterday!" The trio and Snape looked over with frowns from whatever they were doing at the girls upset quivering voice, Artimis gave Mythal a completely and utterly confused look as she paused in the classroom entrance, "You… did you forget what yesterday was too?"

"… Someone's death-day party?" Mythal shook her head while her face when slack with disbelief, "Uh… a study day we promised to do together with Hermione?" Again a no, Artimis thought for a second and looked at Ron with a frown to try and work out if anything was important that she missed this month, "Ron's birthday was on the 1st of March which was… uh… sir, what day is it today?"

"13th of March." Snape barked angrily, he watched along with the others in curiosity as Artimis' face went pale and slack for a second and then she gave a sharp awkward laugh. Red began to speckle her cheeks and nose as she realized what it was she forgot.

"OH! It was my 20th birthday yesterday, I completely forgot!" Everyone in the room went silent for a moment, now understanding Mythal's disbelief. Draco and his lackeys snorted before rushing out of the room to tell the other Slytherin's of the older girls forgetfulness.

"How can you forget your own birthday!?" Mythal almost swayed Artimis' head off as she gripped the older girls shoulders and rattled her back and forth roughly.

"With great skill and cunning…?" Artimis said in a funny voice as her teeth clattered painfully with each forward rock.

The trio began to laugh as they finished packing up their workstations, "Happy Late Birthday, Art." Harry sniggered under his breath as they began to leave the room; Artimis' face was turning redder with her embarrassment at the sound of Snape's scoff as she followed the others out of the room. Snape was left behind at his desk to wonder if something was mentally wrong with the girl, who was now a young woman at age twenty.

That night, Artimis returned to her room where piles of boxes were awaiting her on the bed end. Quietly Artimis opened gifts from most, if not all the teachers. Even Snape got her a necklace of green gemstones in a strange vial; it was rather creepy in a strange way but she liked it in her eerie sense of taste. In rather plain wrapping paper was another gift from Quirrell that Artimis hesitated to open in fear of what he could have possibly gotten her.

Thankfully it wasn't anything dangerous, just a plain red crystal cut paperweight. Artimis felt nothing magic wise from the rocky item, she couldn't help but grin at the skull shape it was cut into. Most would think it as a strange or creepy gift, but Artimis loved it and instantly placed it on her bedside table to weigh down some of the books she got. The nervous Ravenclaw teacher had a strangely fantastic sense of taste in gifts…

**I Want It**

About a month or so later for some reason Hagrid sent a message to Artimis as well as the trio to come visit him at his hut. Artimis' eyes went straight to the egg on the fireplace as it rattled and an excitement rose to her eyes, "Is that a dragons egg?" Hagrid shared her excitement as they waited for the egg to hatch with eager eyes.

When it did, the trio looked scared at the baby dragon while Artimis cooed happily and was all like 'Aw, I want to name it Squishy, and it shall be my Squishy' but Hagrid named it Norbert. Both the dragon addicts began to speak about how cute it was while the trio looked at them as if they were idiots. "I want it…" Artimis whispered longingly as she pet the dragon carefully as to avoid its fangs and the fire breathing reptile released odd purrs. It took all three of the children to drag Artimis away as the little dragon enjoyed a scratching beneath its chin from her nails. Artimis left with a heart broken expression, she wanted the baby dragon desperately.

The trio and Artimis visited again a few days later when Norbert was becoming very violent, Ron was bitten on the hand by the emotional dragon and was hospitalized from the poison in the dragon's fangs. Draco got them, and himself, into trouble the next few following nights as they snuck Norbert secretly to Charley Weasley. Neville also got into trouble during that day.

For the next week Artimis, Harry, Hermione and Neville were all treated severely by the other Gryffindor students for loosing all the points, which had made them fall behind on the House Cup competition. Snape commented on it as he passed them, and thanked them loudly for making the House Cup fall into Slytherin's hands, which had caused the Gryffindor's to become more spiteful. At some time through the week Artimis had a curse cast at her which made a burning rash cover her arms which ice didn't even soothe, Snape brewed a potion at Pomfrey's request and it took away some of the pain from the red skin and even helped it heal faster.

The next week following them being caught up late in the castle, they all had detention with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest at midnight. Neville and Hermione went with Hagrid while Draco and Harry went with both Artimis and Fang, the massive hound. Artimis, who hated being outside in the dark even in the streets, walked with her wand raised as the two boys behind her who had their wands confiscated for the night because they kept fighting each other and weren't trusted with just using them for self protection.

Anticipation rose up Artimis' spine in waves, as she knew what was out there in the forest hiding away from their sights. Draco complained and mentioned his father the whole way through the darkness, Artimis retorted in her fear while Harry ignored him, "Oh shut it Draco, and if you hadn't tried to get all of us in trouble too then you wouldn't be in the situation. Next time leave a note with forged handwriting, or work out a way to persuade a teacher to come out at the right time when your 'victim' is going to pass. Use that Slytherin brain of yours next time."

The blonde went quiet; somewhere in his mind he wondered why Artimis wasn't in Slytherin herself with the imaginative things she came up with. But any thoughts or other comments were lost as they found the first drops of silvery blood on the roots, and beyond the trail around a tree was the body of a unicorn. And with the body was a cloaked figure devouring its blood from cut on the beautiful creatures neck. As the figure turned, Draco screamed almost girlishly and ran away with a whimpering Fang leading the way.

With wand raised, Artimis stood between the figure and Harry, as the boy seemed to freeze up at the sight, somewhere inside him he recognized the feeling coming from the figure from his younger childhood. Artimis could just hear Harry's sharp intake of breath as his scar burned painfully while the dark figure flew closer with hands raised to strangle the life from them both. But before the figure could even touch Artimis or Harry, a centaur with silvery blonde hair leapt through the thicket and charged the cloaked figure away.

From the direction he came, Hagrid and the others rushed to lift Harry who looked like he was going to faint. With the help from the centaur named Firenze they left the forest without any more incidents besides a small verbal fight with another centaur named Bane. Hermione and Harry went to the schools hospital clinic to make sure the boy was fine. Draco went back to the Slytherin common room to pretend he was brave and to brag about how non fearful he was with his friends and Mythal, while Artimis slowly trudged to her bedroom and only just got changed into her nighty before falling into the bed covers.

**Boggart Terror**

The next morning Artimis' eyes snapped open at an unfamiliar sound and sat upright with wand whipped out at the possible attacker, Professor Quirrell squeaked loudly at her sudden movement and the wand pointed at his face as he had tried to be quiet in his movements into her room. "I-I am s-s-sorry! I was a-after the B-B-Boggart! I-I didn't k-k-know you s-slept h-h-here!" He levitated the Boggart cupboard outside with a shaking hand, "F-For the o-o-older years… I thought I s-should get it b-before it was dealt w-with b-by M-McGonagall…" His stutter seemed to increase tenfold.

"Its fine, sir… I almost sent a jinx at you though…" Artimis replied and returned her wand back to its place inside the bottom of her pillow, Quirrell bowed nervously and continued to apologize as Artimis' face fell back onto her pillow from her position on her stomach.

"I w-will let you sleep s-some more, Miss K-K-Knight… s-sorry again!" And he sped out of the room again with terror on his face, Artimis yawned but couldn't sleep after the embarrassing event so she stood and changed into her school robes. What a wake up call…

With a loud yawn beneath the back of her hand, Artimis stumbled into Quirrel's classroom after a lesson with Binn's, which had been directly after Transfigurations. At the sight of her, Quirrell seemed to grow even more nervous and Snape stopped his threats to look over his shoulder. Looking through watery eyes after the large yawn, Artimis struggled out her words awkwardly. "Did I come at a wrong time, sir? Do you want me to wait outside?"

The Potions Master let go of Quirrell's shirt with a shake of his head, he silently moved to the side with a glare. He was not leaving until he got answers from the turbaned man. Quirrell tried to pretend the ominous man wasn't there, waiting to threaten him again the second Artimis was gone. "I am s-s-sorry again for t-t-this m-morning, M-Miss Knight."

"It's fine; you're lucky it's so cold here in the castle. In Australia it would be so hot I would be sleeping on top of the covers in my underwear… so no hard feelings sir." She laughed awkwardly; Quirrell went red before nodding and beginning to write on the blackboard for Artimis. Snape looked at them both while wondering what the hell happened this morning.

"Was the Boggart useful?" Artimis asked quickly after a few minutes into the lesson. Quirrell nodded and gestured her over excitedly.

"Y-You know a-about B-Boggarts?"

"Yeah I do and the spell. I was planning to try and deal with it myself, but have no idea what my worst fear is or how I would react when alone…" Quirrell pushed out the cupboard and offered her a go, Artimis looked from him to Snape nervously before stepping forward while hoping that if something went wrong one of them would step forward. Quirrell explained the spell quickly before opening the cupboard; the thing that formed caused Artimis to freeze all over in surprise and terror as her foggy memory returned to her full force.

Before her stood a man in a black hoodie that was covering his bleach blonde hair while holding a bloodstained knife out as if to attack, the lower half of his face was covered with a black bandana with white skull teeth and thick snowboarding sunglasses covering the upper half, but Artimis recognized him instantly as he chuckled and pulled his hand across his neck in a slicing motion. How did she forget the man who murdered her and Mythal? He was the reason they were here in the Potter realm, dead. Quirrell and Snape watched Artimis' face, not knowing whom the man was only that Artimis seemed to become paralyzed and go almost as pale as paper.

As her wand began to shake and the words got stuck in her throat with a small-disgruntled whimper, Quirrell was surprisingly fast to act. He stood in front of Artimis, and before the Boggart could change to his own fear, he cast the spell in a surprising strong voice and sent the Boggart back into the cupboard with a flick of his wand. "M-Miss K-K-Knight… can you h-hear me?" No answer, Artimis seemed to be in a state of frozen shock with wand raised.

Against the wall, Snape uncrossed his arms with unease. It had been years since he had seen someone go into such quiet fear, not since Voldemort was alive. Ordering Quirrell to keep his eyes on the girl, Snape left through the nervous mans office fireplace to get to his own faster so he could find a certain potion that he had been brewing for days now to prepare for the coming exams for students. He returned to the classroom where Artimis had not moved, her face was turning bluish as she seemed unable to breath and Quirrell was panicking over her. Snape grabbed Artimis head in his arm from behind, pulled her head back roughly and forced the potion into her mouth, the second it hit her tongue the paralyzing fear vanished as the Calming Draught did what it was brewed to do.

"Take deep breaths, Miss Knight." And she did at Snape's calm command, gulping in air while Quirrell fanned her with a heavy book. She wobbled on her feet for a second before lowering her wand after realizing the Boggart was gone, as she slowly relaxed Snape finally let her shoulders go quickly.

"S-Sorry…" She stuttered in a similar fashion as Quirrel did regularly, the DADA teacher apologized for making her face the Boggart, he didn't mean for her to get so terrified.

"M-Maybe you s-should go rest, M-Miss K-K-Knight."

"Yeah… sorry…" She packed up her things and stumbled from the room while holding her head almost like she was suffering a severe hangover. Snape stuck the empty bottle back into his robes top pocket and faced Quirrell once again with hand gripped in his shirt. He will get his answers, then inform McGonagall of her currently emotional Gryffindor.

Back in the Gryffindor tower late that night, Artimis curled up beneath her covers after a visit from a rather worried McGonagall who had been informed of what happened by Snape. She ordered Artimis to stay bedridden for the next day to get over her shock and to eat healthy, a house elf would bring up something to eat through the day. The young witch was more then happy to do what the older woman commanded and slept easily through the night and halfway through the day.

A hand touched her forehead and Artimis groggily opened her eyes to meet Quirrell's worried ones, he flinched when he noticed she was awake but didn't stop checking her temperature while apologizing again for the Boggart. "Its fine, sir…" Artimis mumbled weakly as she seemed to drift between sleep and wakefulness. Quirrell looked to where his gift sat on her beside table in full sight.

"Do y-y-you l-like it?"

"Love it, its adorable… Thanks sir…" And she was out like a light once again, Quirrell tilted his head at those words as he didn't think she would like it after he had wrapped it but didn't have time to think of something else as it was a little late at knowing her Birthday and Dumbledore had cornered every teacher to get her something to make her feel comfortable on her Birthday after the deaths of her parents.

"She likes it…?"

"Strange one, this woman… and rather delightful…" A hissing and rather lurid voice caused Quirrell to jump, his master whispered quietly to him many things that could be done to the woman in her current state and after some well-placed befuddling spells she wouldn't remember a single thing in the morning. The words were enticing, but before Quirrell fell to the dark words and images he forced himself to pull back and fight against the dark wizard possessing him. Quickly as to escape the force pulling him down, Quirrell rushed from the room while fighting the parasite latching to his soul the whole way back to his office.

**End Chapter 2**

So that is Artimis' worst fear. It wasn't shown in my main story so I thought to show it here to maybe end some questions about her. At the sight of her and Mythal's murderer she suffered a heavy anxiety attack.

Also poor little Quirrell, he fought hard to keep Voldemort from controlling him.


	3. Burning Flesh

**Burning Flesh**

Exams were finally finished after late nights of study in the libraries with Mythal and Hermione weeks beforehand which was something the two Australian's weren't use to; Artimis had slept nicely on the final day so deeply that the Trio escaped unnoticed in the middle of the night to hunt down someone trying to steal the stone, which they thought the perpetrator was Snape and not the stuttering DADA Professor, Quirrell.

Only a few hours into her deep sleep, Artimis woke up with a loud gasp and a frantic heart lodging itself into her throat. It was almost like how when one dreamed of falling from a cliff and they woke up just before hitting the ground. After the disorienting feeling of pure anxiety, Artimis climbed from her bed with a frown. 'What the hell woke me up so late in the night?'

The answer was laying on the carpet to the Common Room in a full Body-Bind Hex. With a gasp of worry, Artimis quickly cast the counter spell on poor Neville Longbottom, "Artimis! Harry, Ron and Hermione they went outside again, their gonna to make us get into trouble again!"

"You sit down and rest, I will go search for them." Neville nodded and relaxed on the lounge while Artimis tightened her long robe around her body and rushed from the room. Through the halls she twisted and turned searching every nook and cranny, until she finally crashed into the arms of a teacher on duty in the dark halls. Snape seemed shocked as the woman turned the corner he had been stalking towards and literally fell into his arms, she was quick to leap back with wand raised in terror before relaxing somewhat.

"Miss Knight, out late once again? You seem to be…"

"I was searching for a teacher! I found Neville under a Body-Bind Hex; he says Harry and the others left… Apparently there was something important on their minds." Artimis quickly cut Snape off from his drawl, the pale man looked astonished for a second as he was cut off in a harsh voice. "They have been gone for hours now…"

"What could they possibly be after…?" His eyes seemed to flash with understanding as his words slowed down while his mind sped ahead; he led the way quickly through the halls to the Headmaster Tower where he faced Dumbledore with his thoughts. Within a short moment the old wizard and Potions Master were running through the halls with Artimis following, wincing as he bare feet burned painfully on the freezing ground as she tried to keep up. The two wizards didn't seem to mind Artimis' presence as she joined them through the trials of the restricted area, she even assisted with her young quick eyes to spot the small flying key needed which Snape caught, showing a surprising skill with the broomstick.

They reached the large chessboard where Hermione sat with Ron trying to make him feel at ease with his broken ribs and arm. Both children paled at the two wizards and even more so at the sight of Snape who they thought was their enemy, "Severus do what you can for those bones and stay with them. Artimis, you follow me and keep your wand out." Artimis swallowed painfully and pulled out her wand from her robes inner pocket once again and followed the Headmaster through the next halls. She wished for just a second that she had changed, for all she was wearing was a short plain black nighty and her long school robe.

Behind them as they left his sights, Ron whimpered as Snape knelt down to examine his bones, "Stop moving Weasley. It is a mystery how you three got this far in with your sniveling." That made Snape earn a glare from the ginger, just to show who was the boss the Professor made certain to grip at the boys broken arm roughly causing him to yelp loudly, "10 points from Gryffindor, Weasley. And you may have just received detention for a week upon your return to Hogwarts next year, that is if you return after this."

With heavy breathing, Artimis followed Dumbledore into the circular room with the mirror in the center. Harry was collapsed on the ground with Quirrell above him screaming in agony as his skin blistered and sizzled, Dumbledore didn't hesitate to almost glide down the steps. His eyes were firm on the face on the back of Quirrell's head, the creepy face of Voldemort looked back with a frightening sneer as he spotted his biggest enemy. His burning eyes only glanced at Artimis without a care as she moved slowly around Dumbledore to get closer to Harry's side as Quirrell fell back with a loud scream of fear as he slowly turned to ash. The DADA teacher screamed and reached out towards Artimis, begging her to help him but she seemed to become frozen in horror as the hand reaching out fell into a pile of ash.

Quickly, Voldemort unattached himself from the dying Quirrell and his soul escaped with a loud cry of rage, as the young boy and old wizard once again thwarted him from his plans. Artimis rushed to Harry and caught the scrawny boy before he hit the stairs, Dumbledore picked up the Philosophers stone from where it fell and pushed it safely into his own pocket with a frown and joined Artimis in kneeling over Harry to examine his health.

After only a second of hesitation, Artimis pulled the incredibly light boy onto her back and carried him outside with Dumbledore leading the way. Hermione and Ron looked over with worry on their faces, Snape avoided looking over as he summoned a cast onto Ron's arm and ribs so the boy could be transported to the hospital without damaging his wounds even more. 

In the morning after these events, Mythal rushed to the Hospital wing where Harry and Ron were both kept for their injuries. Mythal sat with Ron to ease him over his trauma due to the broken bones he had healed with magic while Artimis was sitting with Harry on his bed, Dumbledore joined them to speak with Harry just as Artimis tried a Berty Bott bean and gagged loudly.

"What was it? Bogey, Vomit or even Liver?" Ron asked excitedly from the bed across the aisle.

"Mushroom…! I hate mushrooms!" Artimis took a big drink of a glass of pumpkin juice while everyone chuckled, Dumbledore carefully tried one too thinking it would be toffee by its colour but ended up getting earwax.

With a wide gesture of his hands after speaking with Harry, Dumbledore left the hospital with Mythal and Artimis following. "I have been able to pull a few strings to get you both a place to stay until next year." His eyes shone cheekily, "You may stay in a house to rent that belongs to an old friend of mine who makes lovely cupcakes. She also says you are welcome to work in her café that is for both Muggle's, Witches and Wizards to help pay for said rent."

"Oh, thank you sir." The two girls grinned in happiness at that idea, then Artimis frowned. "Is there a catch to this, where is the house?" That made Dumbledore's look become cheekier at the young woman's quick mind and thought she shoulder have been in Slytherin.

"Just around the corner to Privet Drive, street of Harry Potter's home."

**Renting**

Their new home was rather cozy. It already had plain but nice furniture placed inside, the old witch who was renting them the home smiled at the two and began to explain to Artimis her work timetable over the school holidays and her pay. It was enough to pay the small amount of rent in the tiny home with extra if Artimis worked hard enough, who was planning to maybe sell some small drawings here and there for more money.

The old witch said her goodbyes to the two and left them to fully examine the place and get their bearings. The house was small like a flat but had a couple extra rooms and a medium sized pool out the back, the yard was surrounded with a high fencing that kept people from looking in. The pool was protected from the sun by massive trees that had branches reaching over almost like large natural umbrellas creating a canopy above, they had obviously been made to grow that way with magic. In the vast green of the trees there were small flowers, but the backyard was rather plain. The garden was small with simple daisies and other flowers as the pool and trees took up most of the yard.

Since both residences were witches, the landlady didn't have to let the pool be cleaned by Muggle means as to hide magic. The surface of the pool was magic laced like a shield so when leaves fell in they disappeared after a short moment, keeping the pool crystal clean much to Artimis' relief, as she knew a pool was difficult to keep clean if it had no cover especially if it was under trees.

Inside the house while Artimis examined the outside, Mythal was quick to inspect the kitchen and its utensils. She seemed pleased with the few things but at Artimis' instruction she wrote down a few things she would like added. The cupboards and fridge were already stocked up with some Muggle instant meals for them to eat through the week until Artimis could buy a few more things to add.

Walking around the house, Artimis took the bedroom closest to the front of the house, which was the main bedroom with a simple attached bathroom. Mythal took the smaller one in the back of the house but it was next to the main bathroom that had a bath as well as a shower. It was also closer to the kitchen, which Mythal was very happy with for she loved to have midnight snacks every so often.

The bedroom Artimis chose was plainly furnished like the rest of the house, it had a large bed with plain white covers. Quickly Artimis planned to change it and pulled out her wand to test colour-changing spells. For once her wand was happy to cast the magic after so long, the sheets changed to black and the cover a lovely emerald green. Sadly Artimis didn't know yet how to add patterns and thought maybe she could ask Flitwick next year about household magic so she could make this house more livable until she and Mythal could find a more permanent living household.

Mythal entered the room and spotted Artimis' new bed, she begged her to change the colours in her room too. Artimis did so happily changing the sheets to deep blue and the covers to a pale purple.

Over the next day Artimis went around changing colours of furniture and walls until she found it livable. At the end of the short foyer where there was a mirror on a feature wall, she changed the wall to a lovely deep red before changing her mind and putting it to a golden colour. In her bedroom above her bedhead she changed the single wall to a silvery grey, in the kitchen she changed it to earthy browns with the occasionally turquoise sticking out to blend with the water of the pool outside.

After speaking to Mythal, Artimis changed the wall above her bedhead to a deep purple before decided that was enough for now. If anything looked off she would happily change it again, as she found it rather enjoyable.

**Welcome to the Neighborhood, Here… Have a Cake **

Two weeks passed and Artimis saved up a fair amount of money in the Muggle bank she signed up with by working in the Café and selling a few of her simple drawings around their rented home, enough money for her and Mythal to go out and buy themselves a few things such as swimmers for the pool. They went for a walk down the street to catch the bus into the center of town where they went on a small shopping spree. They bought clothes, swimmers, health snack foods and more microwavable meals. Everything they got they made certain were on sale or reduced in price.

Once they returned home with their arms filled with bags, they packed things away and went to sleep with plans to get into their swimmers instantly in the morning to get into the pool for the first time since arriving.

In the morning after a light breakfast the Knight Twosome happily dressed into their swimmers in their separate rooms, just before someone knocked on the door with strong fists. Artimis frowned as she finished dressing neatly while Mythal left her room; the young woman hadn't even had her daily caffeine hit yet.

With a small skip, Mythal answered the door happily in her bright purple swimmers under a pair of blue and purple floral shorts and thin purple cotton shirt, "Hello… sir and mam. Do you want to come inside?" Mr. and Mrs. Dursley entered at the girls offer with cautious thanks, Dudley pushed through the door with a grumpy expression, as he hadn't had his sweets yet and it was too early in the morning, Harry followed the three inside awkwardly. He gave Mythal a apologetic look when they couldn't see him and was returned with a small shrug of indifference.

"Who is it Myth?" Artimis walked out of her bedroom while tying her long hair up into a ponytail that she usually reserved for Potion's classes or hot days, Dudley and his parents eyes seemed to bulge, Harry looked startled at the sight of the usually rugged up and plain witch. The young woman was wearing a turquoise bikini and a pair of very short chocolate brown shorts with white leaf like patterns up one side. Over the top she wore a massive clear sarong tied at two corners that she hocked behind her neck so it sat like a backless cardigan, the colour was a bright faded orange with deeper orange swirls sewn in. "Hello?" She frowned in confusion at the sight of the Dursley's and Harry, who she noticed was pretending not to know them. Probably so the Dursley's didn't know the two new girls to the area were actually witches.

"Evening, we live around the street and noticed the rent sign was removed while passing yesterday, we came to welcome you to the neighborhood." Mrs. Dursley said in a rather practiced tone and handed over what looked like a cake box, Artimis smiled brightly as she took the offered box and examined it quickly. It was a simple sponge cake with 'welcome' written in cursive across white icing in flowery pink and flowers around the edges.

"Thank you for coming to welcome us and give us this rather tasty looking morsel, it is nice to meet people living around our place. Do you want tea or coffee?" Mr. Dursley's eyes brightened at the rather gracious question, it was almost like he was expecting something terrible from the young woman for he had thought she was a delinquent at the sight of her tattoo in the reflection of the mirror against the feature wall behind her at the end of the short entrance foyer.

"Tea will be fantastic!" Artimis ushered them into the sitting room, turning her hostess attitude on to make both Mythal and Harry to calm down in their obviously flustered postures. "What do you do for a living, Miss…?"

"Artimis Knight, and I currently work at the café on Richard's Street. The one with the rather vintage look about it just a few streets away from the zoo."

"We went there last year before going to the zoo for Little Dudley's birthday. They make very cute cakes there, I tried to persuade the manager to teach me her icing techniques, but she keeps her secrets close." Mrs. Dursley gushed longingly, the icing was so delicate and well shaped it seemed impossible.

"Yes, sadly I don't get to make any of the sweets; I just help cutting things for the meals and doing prep the day before. I do the coffees and sometimes kitchen work when I don't work front of house." Artimis felt her lips twitch, the reason the old witch kept her icing techniques secret was because they were crafted with magic to make their shapes. Cheating in the minds of Muggle bakers.

"You studied chef work?" Mr. Dursley leaned forward in curiosity as he lounged in the armchair that Artimis had dubbed her own. He seemed to look at Artimis with esteem at the idea of her doing anything noteworthy and intelligent in the rather 'feminine' workplace, and he believed it to be. Kitchens were the realms of women according to his old fashioned mind.

"Well, I did in my HSC at high school. I did Hospitality for two years, sadly I didn't do Barista work along with it, I chose Ancient History instead… but the manager is happy to teach me how to use the machines." Artimis quickly brewed the tea for Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, for Dudley she made a quick Iced Chocolate to stop the sweet deprived boy harassing Harry with his elbows, who was wedged between him and Mrs. Dursley on the large lounge. The large boy looked at it hungrily but slowly drank it and ate the cream; his large gulping mouth kept missing the straw and spoon, as he couldn't take his eyes from the young woman in a state of fascination. He probably didn't see many young women and was curiously watching her.

The adults sipped their tea happily; Artimis had followed their instructions on how they liked their drinks perfectly. She had a fair amount of practice with her parents and their own visitors with understanding what people wanted. Parents seemed to be on Mr. Dursley's mind then too as he held the soft scented tea beneath his nose, "When do your parents come home?"

"… Uh… We don't have any…" Both adults lost half their drinks into their laps as they missed their lips, Artimis rushed and grabbed them napkins so they could dab up the burning liquid, "Sorry, my parents were killed inside a bushfire in our country town of Australia, Mythal's mother passed years beforehand and her father… pretty much is dead."

"I am terribly sorry to hear that… so you're from Australia?" Mrs. Dursley was quick to get over her shock and try to cover up the awkward question as Mr. Dursley scratched at his moustache.

"Correct," Artimis turned her attention to Harry, "Do you want tea or a coffee, or iced chocolate?"

"Uh… coffee please…" Harry's voice was nothing but a whisper; Artimis quickly made up three coffees and gave one to Harry and another to Mythal, who sat on one of the metal stools under the bench between the sitting room and kitchen. Artimis quickly took a large sip of her coffee with a heavy sigh, how she missed her precious.

Another knock on the door caught all their attention. Mythal paused before rushing to answer it and she greeted the people cheerfully. Both Harry and Artimis looked at each other at the name, "Hello Draco, and Mr. Malfoy!" Artimis released a small-strangled sigh; the guest list was piling up all in one day.

Mythal led the three inside and shrugged at Artimis deadpanned look, "I gave Draco our address." That made Artimis' brow twitch in annoyance.

"Perfect…" Artimis released in a monotonous voice as the two blondes entered the room. Lucius and Draco both paused at the sight of Harry Potter squashed on the sofa with coffee clenched tightly in his hands. Then getting over his surprise, Draco sneered and was about to release a sour comment before Artimis rushed out of the kitchen with arms raised to stop any fights.

"Drinks! Do you want tea or Coffee, water… soda?" The two new arrivals looked startled at the sudden appearance of the almost naked young woman in swimmers and looked her up and down as if she was a new species.

"Tea for me, Artimis." Draco answered; Lucius copied the reply with simply a curt 'tea' as he watched the young woman. Artimis was quick to make up a drink for them, Harry looked like he was shrinking under the gaze of the older wizard. Draco and Mythal sat comfortably on the stools to observe.

"Artimis? Draco told me all about you from school along with his little lady friend, Mythal." Lucius uttered out in a refined tone, the adult Dursley's examined him in admiration at his rich emerald green fashion. "He said it was odd for you to have been sorted into Gryffindor and not Slytherin, though I cant see what reason…"

"Did you say you wanted tea? Or a punch in the kisser, Mr. Malfoy?" Artimis snapped in a sharp tone before Lucius could continue, the blonde man's eyes slit in anger at her while everyone else jumped. Artimis had shown nothing but a gentle hostess like personality until now and surprised them with her hardness.

After a short awkward silence, the Dursley's stood and thanked Artimis for her time and welcomed her and Mythal one more time to the neighborhood. Mythal led them to the door to see them off while Harry placed his mug in the sink and checked to make sure the Dursley's were out of hearing before whispering to Artimis so the Malfoy's didn't hear him too, "Can I visit when they aren't looking?"

"Not a problem, come round anytime past 4pm during the week when I am not working, Mythal should still be here earlier though. Weekends we are usually here or shopping…" Artimis whispered back, Harry started to rush after the Dursley's. Then they were gone, Mr. Dudley was heard outside yelling at Harry over something causing Draco to grin at the other boys demise.

Pulling out his wand, Lucius cast a spell over the armchair to clean it of the presence of the large Muggle man who had been sitting in it with a disgusted look on his face. Artimis placed the teacup down on the coffee table in front of him and returned to the kitchen to finish with Draco's tea then took out the Daily Prophet from under the sink where she had hidden it from the Dursley's when rushing into the kitchen. Mythal returned to finally finish her coffee, her and Draco went into conversation instantly about school related things and Artimis reheated her coffee before sitting on the lounge.

In the armchair, Lucius examined Artimis calmly over the rim of the teacup as he drank in his sophisticated Pureblood way. "I heard from both Draco and Severus that you are being schooled in Hogwarts due to late learning…"

"Yes, that is true." Artimis didn't let the thought of Snape gossiping about her to affect her patience or short temper, nor this man. She instantly did not like Lucius as he examined her like some kind of item, almost like he was sizing up her value.

Another sip later from the man and the two younger pair in the room went outside to escape the silence and cloud brewing over the older two, a splash later told that Mythal had jumped into the water while Draco sat on the pool chair to keep talking with the girl.

The armchair squeaked as Lucius leaned back slightly after placing the teacup on the plate again, "Exactly how old are you, Miss Artimis Knight?" He drawled out his words and Artimis felt her spine crawl in anger at his tone.

"Twenty… why is it important, Mr. Malfoy?" She curtly said his name and her eyes flashed dangerously. The man ignored her warning look, but kept his thoughts to himself as he smirked.

For almost an hour he sat there staring at Artimis while his son and Mythal conversed outside. Artimis, no matter how much she hated this man instantly, had her hostess attitude on and couldn't leave the man alone and unattended within her home. So she suffered all his one sided conversations and double sided questions, he was making an image in his mind and by the end of the day Artimis did not want to even know half of what he painted on her as she and Mythal saw the two Malfoy's off.

"I need to get in the water so badly right now!" And Artimis rushed out while removing the sarong, throwing it to the pool seat and jumped into the cold water. She did a few laps before relaxing as she warmed up and got used to the water, Mythal jumped back in as well and floated around Artimis while chatting about what her and Draco had spoken about. As it grew later, and their skin pruned, the pair climbed out to take showers and go to bed after a microwave dinner.

For the next few days, they both spent their time in the pool for as long as they could, leading up to the return of Hogwarts. Every so often through those weeks, Harry had joined them in their home to talk but sat on the edge of the pool in his fear of the water even as Artimis tried to persuade him to come in so she could teach him to swim, this lasted for a few days until the night the Weasley's broke him from his bedroom.

After this problem the Dursley's visited of often then appreciated as Dudley began to beg his parents to take him to the Knight's residence, he enjoyed the Ice chocolate and also watching Artimis in curiosity. Much to the young woman's aversion, for some reason her mother, her and sister attracted all the weirdo's.

**End Chapter 3**

I think Artimis is rather good at decorating and colour schemes.

And you cans see Draco and Mythal have a friendship growing through the first year. They don't start 'dating' until late into third year in my main story though. And the fact about attracting weird men is true with my mother, older sister and me. My father is a good example of weirdo…

This weirdo attraction is important in the next chapter.


	4. Locked Hearts

**Locked Hearts**

The café had been rather busy the last week before school had to start again. The old Landlady Witch, who was also the café's Manager, told them she would handle their home while they're away keeping everything inside clean for their return with charms.

The Knight's had to leave to Diagon Alley to stay and collect their new school things before leaving to King's Cross the next day; they finished packing their trunks and pulled them out onto the street's sidewalk. Their landlady waved them goodbye as they stuck out their wands horizontally to summon the Knight Bus. The giant bus stopped with a crack in front of them and Stanpike pulled their trunks up onto the bus with a grunt.

Once everything was fine and on the bus, Mythal wedged herself in an armchair as to not fall down as the bus sped off again. Artimis fell into the other armchair next to Mythal with tight lips as Stanpike examined her and what she was wearing with curiosity.

Today Artimis was wearing a simple pair of tight ankle jeans with her large boots over the top; she wore a rather gothic like shirt with thin 'belts' around the stomach area and tight arm warmers. Her long wavy hair war pulled up in her messy bun that she hadn't removed since finishing work, she even had her light make-up left on. Only black eyeliner, faint black eye shadow and a lipstick slightly darker then her natural lip colour. Mythal wore a simple purple dress with tights underneath and a lovely jacket over the top to protect her back from the sun and cool wind.

"So where is it you two are off to?"

"Diagon Alley." Artimis answered curtly.

"That will be our fourth stop, so hold tight love." Stanpike gave Artimis a sickening smile which she returned with a small one before turning her attention to Mythal with a look of 'please get me off here now' causing the girl to grin before looking out the window.

After they finally stopped at the pub that led to Diagon Alley, a worker levitated their trunks up to the room they requested before the two Knight's locked up to go to do school shopping before it was too late.

There were more people then last time the duo was here, mostly around the bookstore. The two Knight's looked at each other with worry, thinking they wouldn't be able to get in to buy their things. Suddenly a familiar voice called out, "Artimis and Mythal?" Arthur was there with the rest of the Weasley's, Harry and Hermione with her parents, who looked very much like Artimis and Mythal had on their first day here.

"Mr. Weasley!" The two sighed in relief as the ginger haired man helped them wedge inside past the crowd, "What's going on!?" Artimis called out over the girly screams as she joined the Trio, they looked over at someone on the small stage speaking. One look told Artimis everything, it was Gilderoy Lockhart.

"Gilderoy Lockhart… his doing book signings." Arthur did not look pleased with the famous mans interference when students were trying to get their books for school. Someone shoved past Artimis painfully causing her to send the massive wizard's back a cold glare before Hermione pulled her over to be introduced to her parents.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Granger. It is a pleasure to meet you both!" Artimis and the two adults had to lean close together to hear each other as they introduced themselves, "I hear your dentists, would it be fine if I one day come to have my teeth checked with you? I have terrible ones, I warn you." Artimis grinned at the thought of her teeth, both her and her father had many problems with them though the years.

The two Granger's looked more then happy to examine them one day and even promised a free checkup after school was finished this year which Artimis grinned brighter at, it would help her with her tight wallet, Harry joined them to thank Artimis for letting him hide out at their place but looked behind them with a startled look and warningly jabbing Artimis in her ribs over and over to get her attention, before she understood why he was so frantic an arm wrapped around her shoulders. "Well who is this enchanting woman, is she a friend of yours Mr. Potter?"

Many older women glared at Artimis then as Lockhart himself wrapped his arm around her and tucked her close to his side. Artimis' face completely closed off as she stiffened, Draco and his parents had entered right at that moment. The youngest Malfoy quickly joined Mythal to watch what was going to transpire, everyone else who had an understanding of the young woman's personality also stopped to watch while nervously hoping her patience would hold before her temper was lost.

"Mr. Lockhart was it? Funny, I haven't read a single one of your books." Something flashed in the man's eyes at the young woman's disinterested tone, he expected her to gush all over him like everyone else was. Even Hermione was swooning in awe and jealousy. It seemed to fascinate him even more.

"Come here darling." He flashed a dashing smile to the camera, Artimis kept her bland expression as the light flashed. Finally she was released from the man, as he was distracted with more signing from his pushing forward fans, she ducked away to continue buying her school things but Lockhart followed her quickly. "Allow me, I paid for Mr. Potters why not for his lovely friend as well." Lockhart flashed the counter girl a smile causing her to turn red and take his money into her hands like it was gods gift, Artimis felt a frown grow on her face but she didn't complain as it once again saved her money.

In the corner, Mythal and Draco were giggling over her suffering. Lucius watched with arms crossed after speaking with Harry and Arthur, a small smirk was rising to his lips as Lockhart pulled Artimis back to his side again while speaking about his exploits. He didn't know Artimis as well as everyone else, but he could see the burning anger rising from her eyes.

For ten minutes Artimis could hold her temper in check until Mythal was finished buying her things too before she let her temper go. "Mr. Lockhart, release me before you risk injury to yourself." The arrogant man didn't seem to take her words seriously as he pulled her around the room with him and kept his body wedged against her side, he knew her wand was in her back pocket out of reach as he kept his side against it. He was so over confident with himself that he didn't even think that the girl didn't need to resort to magic to cause him serious harm. After her third loud request for him to release her so everyone in the room could hear how she wanted him to release her, she cracked.

A cry of pain was released from Lockhart as Artimis' fist connected with his manly area with surprising force. He crumpled to the ground in pain while clenching the offended area and Artimis stepped over him without a care, people rushed to Lockhart's side to help him while giving the young woman cold glares. Everyone who was close with Artimis, or the Malfoy's, went into hysterical laughter as they left the bookstore behind the young woman, their day brightened immensely.

For the walk back to their room, Mythal giggled and commented on the scene causing Artimis to release her own smile. That night, after showering and removing the make-up, Artimis slept with an almost evil Slytherin grin on her face.

The train to Hogwarts was short after everyone changed into their school robes. Artimis let her wild hair stay out like usual over her shoulders in heavy waves, she was back to her clean skin plainness for school for she had no reason for it as she wasn't working, and she had no one to impress for she was twice the age of most people she knew, either older or younger.

And she also didn't want to attract more attention from Lockhart who she knew would be the new DADA teacher, for a second Artimis stressed about being alone with the man in their classes and hoped he wouldn't recognize her through her fuzzy hair and plain dressage.

Too much to hope for, he recognized the way she carried herself and the burn of her eyes the second she entered the Grand Hall for the welcome feast. Artimis sat as far from the teacher's table as possible to avoid him staring at her, many girls swooned as they thought Lockhart was looking at them.

After the meal, the young woman was fast to escape to the safety of her bedroom, which she cast a few spells on the lock so she didn't have anymore unwanted professors wandering in through the night. Artimis dressed with a deep yawn into her nighty and curled up into the bed, she had Potion's first thing tomorrow.

**Explosive**

"So there is absolutely no way you can teach me DADA instead of Lockhart?"

"No Miss Knight, I only have time for one lesson with you and even that is tiresome." He snapped angrily at her, he didn't know why Artimis didn't want lessons with Lockhart and didn't really care… nope not one bit… maybe he was a little curious…

With an almost sulking expression, Artimis finished her potions lesson and grumbled out her goodbye before solemnly heading to DADA directly afterwards. She did not look excited one bit for the lesson and didn't care to be late. As she entered the classroom two minutes late, Lockhart looked up from signing his autograph for the Hogwarts students. His face beamed with his signature charming grin, without a single care about her lateness for it gave him the chance to do signing, Artimis punching him in the balls didn't seem to affect his almost clingy interest in her either.

"Darling, so good to see you again! Shall we get this lesson started?" He stood and began to talk nonsense about himself, Artimis pretended to be interested the whole lesson while feeling spiteful that he had spent the whole hour bragging about himself instead of teaching her anything useful, he shot in a few flowery compliments to her and touched her on the arm a few times before Artimis finally escaped his smirks. She pushed her temper down, but it still burned in her eyes.

Down the corridor, Harry and Ron were washing the floors under the supervision of Snape for one part of their detention after the stint with the flying car. Snape was sitting on the bench simply reading through a potions book as Harry looked up and spotted Artimis storming their way. "Hey Art, how was lessons with Lockhart." Both boys sniggered as Artimis gave them a glare before her face became rather bland as she stormed over the floor they both just finished cleaning leaving her dirty boot prints on the damp ground.

In a harsh and rather cold voice she snapped down at them both in a perfect mimic of Snape, whose eyes flashed over to her at the tone, "You missed a spot." Harry and Ron sent her glares, but looked at each other in curiosity as they wondered what Lockhart had done to make her fall so deeply into her anger and rather Slytherin persona.

"You heard her Potter, Weasley. You missed a spot, better start again." The two boys grumbled at Snape's words and began to clean the ground once again, they would get their revenge on Artimis, Merlin help them.

During a potions lesson, Artimis was brewing a potion while Snape also brewed his own Venomous Tentacula repellant for Professor Sprout on the bench just a meter away from her so he could work and keep his eyes on her own potion, Mythal sat in the back of the room with Draco going over piles of homework away from the noise of the dorms. It was like this that Lockhart found them as he came to look around. Snape heard the door close behind them and turned while Artimis kept her full attention to her potion with tight lips.

Slowly, Snape straightened up so he wasn't hovering over Artimis' own back and faced the DADA teacher with scorn on his face. Lockhart's eyes seemed to flash with something dangerous before he pulled his usual charming grin, "Hello Professor Snape, I was just examining Hogwarts and exploring the area and was curious about your work area." Lockhart examined the room with a grimace for it was tasteless and hideous compared to his elegant setup of his own classroom.

Jealousy settled into him, for some reason Artimis looked more comfortable in the dingy dungeon rather then in the light of his DADA classroom. The thought almost sickened him as Snape returned to his own potion while stating in a deep and scornful voice, "Look, then get out for I am very busy at the moment. I hope I don't have to tell you not to touch anything, Professor…" He snapped the last line for he could see in the reflection of his cauldron the DADA teacher reaching out to lift a jar that looked like it contained a brain from the shelves along the wall. The sandy blonde stopped mid reach then quickly retracted his hand as what was in the jar rolled around to look at him with eyes in its brain like form.

"Hello, Little Lady Knight and Master Malfoy." He flashed the two Slytherin's a smile, both looked up with twin looks of 'Don't talk to me, you're revolting' before returning to their work with curt greetings. Without loosing his 'charming' grin, Lockhart moved to hover over Artimis. Before he could say anything she snapped out at him in a voice similar to Snape's in her state of deep concentration and annoyance.

"Don't talk to me Professor, I am trying to work and you lower the IQ of everyone in a mile radius when you talk out loud…" All three Slytherin's in the room with her released small sounds of humor, both the youngest two released sniggers while Snape scoffed. Lockhart pretended not to be affected by her words and instead silently watched her brew; it was a struggle not to talk for he grew bored.

So he leaned closer to the cauldron to pretend he was inspecting what was inside while trying to get closer to Artimis. The young witch howled with slight anger and startled terror as Lockhart's heavy silk cloak knocked something into her potion. She leapt back in understanding of what was going to happen while Snape acted just as quickly, waving his wand he shielded his own potion, knocked Lockhart back so the man slid beneath a table and then threw himself and Artimis down to the ground within a second.

In the back of the room, Mythal performed just as hastily at Artimis' cry and had pushed herself and Draco under the table as the potion Artimis had been working on blew up sending sharp shrapnel from the cauldron spearing through the air. Chunks stuck in the walls and tables while others smashed some jars along the walls sending the contents onto the ground, Draco and Mythal peered from the spot under the desk to make sure Snape and Artimis were fine.

Blue eyes belonging to Artimis peered out through Snape's robe and his hair that shadowed her whole face as the tall man covered her with his body from their position on their hands and knees under the table where the man had quickly dragged them to avoid any shrapnel. Lockhart cowered beneath his own table in terror, but all were unharmed due to Artimis' quick warning of the danger of her potion, and Snape's reflexes. Mythal swiftly moved from under the table to rush to the pair and knelt beside them while scanning for any possible injuries.

With care, Snape unwound himself from Artimis and climbed from under the table to examine the damage. Inside he felt deep relief at the sight of his unharmed potions, but was lost in a burning fury that filled his body. Reaching down while containing his anger, Snape pulled Lockhart from beneath the table and dragged him to the door; he didn't say anything as he threw the complaining man outside. His face was pulled into his usual blank expression but his eyes were filled with white rage, with all his willpower he closed the door without slamming it and turned to inspect the destruction to his classroom after making sure there wasn't any serious injury to his students.

Out from beneath the table, Artimis crawled with a pained groan and had help from Mythal to stand on her feet again. Her chest and forearms hurt with how hard she hit the ground, though she was thankful Snape had been very careful as to not let her jaw hit the cold floor. Artimis held her bruised chest with a small whimpering sound of pain and Mythal laughed, "At least it cushioned your fall and Snape's."

"Yes, very cozy…" Artimis muttered sarcastically as Draco joined them, his eyes suspiciously on the ruins of the potion before Snape vanished it in case there was an after explosion. What startled the two young Slytherin's was the burning anger in both eyes of the older wizard and witch; it was almost the same sort of burn. But as Snape seethed in his anger, Artimis forced herself to become calm by taking a few breaths before examining Snape to see if he was up for a thank you at the moment, but the professor was stomping around his room with a look of absolute ire and she gestured the two younger pair to gather their things and get out.

The two followed her silent instructions quickly and rushed from the room while Artimis turned to quickly inspect Snape's potion as the man tried to repair his room in a fit of anger. "Sir, you should look to your potion… I can do some of the repairs." The lanky man turned at her voice almost like he had forgotten her presence and looked around after realizing the other two were gone, startled out of his fury at her sensible words he felt his temper quickly evaporate and rushed to deal with his potion before it became ineffectual. Artimis cast the spells to try and repair the room without a care that Snape didn't thank her for assisting or for reminding him of his potion. One did not have to say the words to feel thankful.

Quickly Snape finished his potion and put a stasis spell over it to finish with what Artimis could not repair, silently the witch returned to cleaning up her textbooks which were burned on the outside from the explosion and had holes from the vanished shrapnel, thankfully the pages were fine except for the two she had been open at for her potions instructions. Once again she looked to Snape to see if he was calmer, the man looked back at her with cold eyes. "Thank you sir…"

He bowed his head curtly in acceptance of her thanks before turning to the scorch mark on the desk, with a wave of his hand he cleared it away and took the scorched textbook from Artimis, "Class will end early today. Next lesson you will retry to brew the potion after I rewrite in the instructions to your book, hopefully it will be done without disruption. I will speak with Dumbledore about this and make certain Professor Lockhart his banned from the dungeons," His voice was strained with the anger he was containing as he tried to keep professional.

"Yes sir…" Quickly she gathered her bag and rushed from the room while she contained her own anger towards Lockhart, what a waste of a perfect lesson and potion…

**Artificial Love Rival**

For a whole month after the explosion, Artimis suffered Lockhart harder then ever, every lesson her mood got lower and lower until she was nothing but anger on legs. Her temper flew short as all her well known patience was thrown carelessly to the wind, a few teachers noticed and stepped lightly around her on their toes thinking it was just a phase in her age while those younger and closer to her tried to avoid her at all costs especially after Lockhart accosted her in the halls. For they all knew that man was the real reason behind her ire.

Somewhere through the first days of the month after the explosion, Lockhart seemed to start sending harsh stares towards Snape, who looked like he didn't care the DADA teacher was glaring at him during meals. The reason was unknown to all but the two men, even the one who was the purpose for the glares didn't know.

Artimis Knight sat at the Gryffindor table enjoying a meal without knowing that Snape had faced Lockhart down on his attitude towards Artimis and the damage to his classroom during a teacher meeting when the young witch came up into the conversation, stating it was disrupting all the other lessons as she spent the whole time grumbling about Lockhart's unwanted advances. Within that single coldly said line, Lockhart thought Snape was trying to push him away so he himself could make advances on the young witch. Which was really not Snape's intention…

So when Lockhart was given permission to start a dueling club, he had instantly requested Snape to assist him in watching over the children and also showing an example against him. But that was only on the outside, his real reason was a duel for who could pursue after Artimis, who was still oblivious to what was in the frauds mind. When Lockhart had faced Snape with his thoughts, the Dungeon Professor sent the man a glare of disinterest in the real reason.

But he agreed because Dumbledore had already asked him to assist only minutes before Lockhart caught him in the halls, and because it might keep the man at bay to allow Artimis to actually work. The new DADA teacher flashed a confidant grin and stormed off to the club, where many students were already forming. His eyes travelled the room until he spotted Artimis, the one young woman not chasing after him who was single; she was standing with Harry and the others. Another reason he was after her, she had a close connection to one of the most famous children, the legendary Boy-Who-Lived.

And Lockhart was not about to loose such a feisty, prestigious woman escape his clutches to the sallow greasy haired dungeon dweller. No he would defeat Snape with a single bone-crippling spell and continue to pursue Artimis' love. If he failed he would have to be a little sneakier in winning her heart, but only if he failed and Lockhart was feeling over confident that he would defeat Snape easily.

Everyone lined up to watch as Lockhart introduced them all loudly to the dueling club then his deputy dueler, Snape. Who stepped through the parting crowd while readjusting his coats cuffs and removing his wand from his sleeve, even without his long bellowing school robe following him he still looked intimidating as he stood over Lockhart by a few inches. But Lockhart would not back down and swiftly did the polite dueling bow before facing off.

Before Lockhart could say a single word or even have his spell come to mind, Snape wordlessly shot out a powerful red light that not only disarmed Lockhart but also sent him crashing heavily into the wall, disorientating him. Some children either giggled or worried over him and one voice belonging to the young brunette sniggered loudly so everyone could hear hear, her next words caused many to begin to laugh. "Ten points to Snape." The Potion's Master gave Artimis a curt look, but even so his lips twitched. It had felt good to hit Lockhart; the liar was pushing all his wrong buttons lately and it was refreshing to see someone else enjoy Lockhart's suffering as much as he did, especially after the mishap with the potion.

Quickly Lockhart tried to save his reputation by lying he had let Snape win while hiding his bashful expression at everyone laughing, the words which dark haired man knew was an utter falsehood. For not more then five minutes ago Lockhart had been determined to win because of Artimis, Snape released a snort of disgust as Lockhart looked at the young witch through his lashes as she laughed along with Harry and Ron while Hermione looked worried.

The two teachers walked around the room placing people into pairs, Snape did everything in his power to separate the Trio. Mythal and Artimis both teamed up before Snape could separate them as well and quickly cast their spells, Artimis rapidly countered but got hit by a body-bind as she tried to avoid other students as the hall began to get violent. Mythal was quick to remove it as the room erupted into fights, they both ran through the room trying to stop dangers as Lockhart stood to the side of the room nervously trying to stop the students in a weak voice.

Like a shadow within the sparking lights, Snape moved to the center of the room and rose up his wand to cast a counter spell to stop everything inside the room. Artimis sighed in relief as a girl holding Hermione in a headlock let her go in fear at the sight of Snape standing dauntingly in the center of the room and his voice echoed across the room harshly in command, "This is enough for today! Return to your Dormitories!"

And everyone followed his words like they were god's law, the room emptied rather quickly of the terrified children. As Artimis and Mythal left at the end of the line, the older witch turned in time to catch Lockhart forcing Snape to shake his hand and heard the shorter mans words, "Maybe more precautions need to be taken for the next club… Good fight, I will keep to my word." Snape simply gave him a glare and released the blonde's hand like it was poison before storming from the room, almost knocking both Artimis and Mythal from their feet just as they exited the hall, the two Knight's sent his quickly retreating back dark glares before they rushed off to their dormitories.

**Fistful of Hairbands**

During the next week Artimis noticed the difference in Lockhart, he still bragged about himself for most of the lesson and failed to teach her any really useful practical spells, but resisted touching her in any way and taught the theory well. No complaints about this change came from Artimis as she finally finished her DADA theory for once without Lockhart breathing down her neck and chatting to her endlessly.

Even so it unnerved her slightly, she wondered if he was planning something drastic. Artimis entered her next class of Potion's with a frown across her face as she thought about everything; Snape looked up and examined her quickly. Artimis looked like she was in a better mood then during their last lessons so it was possible Lockhart had really left her alone, if so then he could let her brew instead of write. He hadn't let her brew anything after the time she had to recreate her potion for her temper which had visibly steamed right under her skin.

"You will be doing another brew today, Miss Knight." That startled her but she looked relieved as well, Snape waved his wand in a large arc and the method appeared on the board. Turning back to face his single person class, he waited for her to finish pulling her wavy hair into its high ponytail, removing her topaz ring and pinning her side fringe up, before he spoke so her full attention was on his words. Like usual, Artimis gave him every single piece of attentiveness to his instructions and possible dangers which was a fresh breath of air to Snape from all his other students who didn't care about risks and potions.

Quickly, Artimis got to work preparing the new potion with glee. She was so happy to be doing something she rather enjoyed without disruption from Lockhart that she actually released small hums while working; she didn't even notice she was doing it but Snape did for the young witch seemed to do it often through the past two years when she was in a good mood and brewing something. Usually he didn't mind it for Artimis chose rather good tunes that Snape either had heard or not during his time around Muggle's and it also meant she was working hard, sometimes though he mentioned it for peace and quiet as he tried to work. Snape sent Artimis a glare that she missed or ignored as she collected the required ingredients while humming quietly to 'Bohemian Rhapsody' before the potions mast decided to bring the small habit to light. "Please refrain from unnecessary noise, Miss Knight."

"Huh? What noise… was I humming again?"

"Yes, now stop and get to work." Snape scowled in annoyance causing Artimis' face to go completely slack and nod quickly. Obediently she began to brew, most of the rest of the lesson went by in silence besides the occasional hum that escaped the young witch, as she got completely engrossed into her potion that she would do for a couple of seconds before catching the sound and stopping.

While making his own potion on a table away from Artimis this time, Snape peered over to make sure there was nothing wrong even though he knew Artimis was quick minded enough to notice when something dangerous was happening like she had with the potion Lockhart had destroyed, Snape had made her memorize the different sounds a potion would make if it was going to blow or if something wrong happened to it in the first year. Currently Artimis was looking into her potion while stirring, her brown hair was starting to get oily in the roots much like his did because of the heat of the potions.

Looking at her hair Snape had a thought, maybe when he brewed he should tie his hair up as well just to get it out of the way especially now that it grew slightly past his shoulders in curtains. It was practical and he wouldn't have to worry about having his hair cut every week to keep it so it wouldn't hang in the way. "Miss Knight, do you have a spare band?" When she looked up with a confused look, Snape waved a hand towards his hair, in that movement understanding flashed in her eyes and began to dig through her bag after finishing with her stirring and pulled out a handful of hair bands. At the sight of them all, Snape gave her a look which made her give him a hard look.

"What? I loose them all the time, I put them down somewhere and its like a black hole takes them to a new realm! Here, have two… and some pins." She walked over and handed him two bands; one was deep green and the other one black, she also gave him three pins. Snape tied his hair up in a half high, lazy ponytail with the black one and shoved the green one in his pocket for another time, after a bit of fiddling he got two if the pins in to keep his long side bangs out of his eyes. Quietly they got back to their potions after Snape gave Artimis a small grunt, which was the closest to thanks she would get.

Through the whole lesson, Artimis would peer over to Snape while holding down the spasm twitches of humor from her mouth as she eyed the lanky man. She found it hilarious, the sight of Snape with his hair tied up and bobby pins sticking his bangs up and the man was completely oblivious to her comical thoughts. And the fact that Mythal was going to hear about it the next day, which would lead to the younger witch to giggle every time he entered the room for lessons for the next month. 

**End Chapter 4**

Artimis is more then happy to give away things for people; she lets them 'borrow' pens, hair bands, and pins and would even give the clothes off her back to help someone.


	5. English Rose in Five Jars

**English Rose in Five Jars**

The next week on Christmas, Hermione turned furry with her polyjuice potion and as the new term began another week later, Snape had tried to be angry with the young girl but during a lesson with Artimis the perceptive witch caught his inner thoughts, "Hermione, she is rather great with Potions… and you seem rather pleased with her success, sir."

That earned her a glare as Snape marked papers but did not contradict her, inside he was rather pleased that a student could brew such a difficult potion with or without his assistance, it reminded him of the time he too brewed it years ago for himself to break into the library and the restricted area. He had been caught in the halls but ran away, and the next day James Potter got into heavy trouble.

With a nervous twitch, Artimis watched Snape release a dark vengeful smirk, she had no idea what was going through his mind and shrugged his silence off as she continued to write her essay. Her lips tightened for Valentines day was coming, and she did not look forward to Lockhart's games.

Valentines day was as Artimis feared; Mythal had come into the potions classroom with a humorous look at the only two people that avoided the Grand Hall. Artimis had taken sanctuary in the potions rooms, as it was the only place Lockhart couldn't get to her, "Hey Art Got something for you from you favorite person in the world." The words dripped with sarcasm as Artimis looked up from her position sprawled across the bench with legs folded at the ankles, she had dozed off at the silence as Snape sat at his desk marking piles of work.

Mythal threw the box to Artimis and didn't even look worried as it bounced from the groggy woman's forehead. Carefully Artimis opened the box while extending her arms out in case something dangerous was inside, inside was a box of flowery chocolates in a bed of rose petals, on top was a letter from Lockhart. "Aw, my first ever Valentine's gift… burning." She threw it with great aim into the fire on the other side of the room, Mythal watched it soar with a deadpanned look before it hit the flames.

"What a waste of chocolates."

"I don't trust anything that blonde haired bimbo gives me…"

"… Your 21st Birthday is in another week…"

"… Oh god, what will he get me…"

"Maybe I can drop the small note that you love rose perfume, I am certain he would buy you a rather expensive amount?" Mythal joked as she sat beside Artimis, who ruffled her hair in sleepiness, "Want a coffee?"

"Yes… excuse me, sir. Thank you for 'letting' me hide away in your classroom upon this dreary day."

"I didn't have much choice now did I, Miss Knight." His voice was cold and curt as he sent the two Knight's glares, Artimis had stormed into his room and stated she would stay here for a while before falling asleep on the bench without waiting for Snape to answer. How she did such frustrating things and still be completely polite was beyond Snape.

And on Artimis' Birthday, she got gifts only from the Weasley's, the Golden Trio, Mythal, Dumbledore and Lockhart. She got five bottles of English Rose scented perfume from Lockhart due to Mythal telling Draco of her love for the smell loudly as Lockhart had passed; quickly Artimis took a sniff and sighed in pleasure at her favorite scent crowning superiorly above her other favored smells of Sandalwood, Coconut and Frangipani. It was the only good thing she got in the DADA teacher's affliction towards her. Thankfully he was still avoiding touching her during lessons and accosting her in the halls, especially when Snape was around. It didn't take long for Artimis to notice that little twitch and she wondered what happened between them both but never questioned it.

Quickly Artimis dressed into her jeans and white button up shirt with the faded orange tank top beneath, she threw her school robe over her arms and then left her room after giving her neck and chest area two sprays. In the Grand Hall, Mythal rushed over to give her a hug and breathed in deeply, "Oh, tasty!"

That released a small laugh from Artimis as the two squeezed in beside the Trio, who all took in deep breaths. "That smells good Art. Mythal said she might 'persuade' Lockhart to buy you some, how many did he get you?" Asked Harry in humor while Ron chuckled at Mythal's very Slytherin action.

"Five large bottles… spared no expense…"

"Oh… someone smells…" "Very lovely right now." Both the Weasley twins placed their chins on Artimis shoulder's to take in breaths, they laughed as the older witch waved her hands at them as if shooing away pests… which in a manner of speaking, they were pests of mischief. The twins rushed away to join Lee Jordan at their end of the table, the dark skinned boy handed over some coins as if they had done a bet. Artimis sent them glares while ignoring the yearning eyes Lockhart sent her, she couldn't wait for school to end just to be rid of him. 

**Frozen Solid like Marble**

Hermione was petrified and the two young boys got into trouble with the giant spiders, as they told Artimis their story she shivered at the thought of giant spiders. She hated spiders with a passion, many times she found those black house spiders taking nesting in her clothes and she put them on only to find the arachnid's crawling across her skin. She was fine if a thick layer of glass protected her from them, as she had a massive huntsman in her bedroom window for a whole year to which she named Sir Freak-A-Lot and had actually gotten upset when her father found it dead half way through the year… Then Sir Freak-A-Lot Jr came…

Walking the halls late into the night almost a month later, Artimis paused at a soft sound that met her ears. She had been on her way to find Pomfrey to get a potion for a nauseating migraine caused by her CFS that pounded behind her eye and wouldn't let her sleep as she vomited, it had been years since she actually was sick like this.

This sound was behind Artimis, and she froze with ears picking onto every sound to try and picture what was behind her. Was is the flapping of Snape's cloak, the giggling of Peeves, the meowing of Mrs. Norris or the slither of a giant snake. It was defiantly the last one as Artimis recognized the sound of slithering scales on the marble. Thoughts ran wild as what she knew to be the basilisk reared up right behind her, she could see its shadow looming large behind her. Thankfully the ground was dull and released no reflection as Artimis' body seemed to freeze up and terror filled her mind in a haze.

She wanted to run to escape death or petrification but also wanted to turn around and pat the giant serpent in awe and love, as she had a slight adoration towards snakes. But as the shadow moved back slightly in a striking move, Artimis rushed down the hall and turned to the left. The basilisk hissed in rage and chased after her through the halls. For almost half an hour, Artimis ran like nothing before without any idea where to go.

Finally she seemed to loose the giant serpent as her ill mind was about to give way to more sickness, she took a breath of relief and held her head as she rushed back towards the Gryffindor tower to suffer her migraine… until she walked around the corner and crashed into the chest of Snape "Miss. Knight, what are you doing up at this time of night…?" He paused at her appearance, she looked like she was going to be very sick, her right eye was badly bloodshot from a headache and her breathing was heavy like she had run a marathon. But what also hit him was the pure terror in her face.

"Sick… needed Pomfrey to…" Both of them froze at a sound, Snape didn't know what it was as he rose his wand up defensively but Artimis did know the sound and quickly acted… the basilisk was turning the corner beside them. Artimis covered Snape's eyes with both of her hands before he turned to look while crying out, "Don't look into its eyes!" Just at the same time she met the burning red in the great beasts eyes in the reflection of the window as she tried to turn her head away, and as her body froze like stone causing Snape to be caught in and almost inescapable lock as she thought, 'Hello beautiful!' at the sight of the majestic beast.

In the morning when Mythal awoke, she was met with a rather flustered Snape. Which was saying something as the man was always completely devoid of emotions on his face. In a cold voice he had said, "Follow me." And with fear dripping through her spine, Mythal had all the way to the Hospital Wing where Harry and Ron were already waiting with McGonagall and Dumbledore. A scream of terror escaped Mythal at the sight of Artimis' paralyzed form upon the pristine white sheets.

"Oh my god… Artimis…!"

"She is just petrified, love. Don't worry, we have a cure being worked on." Whispered Pomfrey softly as Mythal reached for Artimis' hands held frozen in the position of covering Snape's eyes. Relief settled inside her that Artimis was not dead, giving way to curiosity.

"Why is she posed like this…?" In the corner of her eye she saw Snape shift uncomfortably and sent his a sharp questioning look, the man ignored the look but even so his lips tightened and his face seemed to be paler then usual. Dumbledore waved a hand while requesting Snape to tell the story. So Snape did on how he had crashed into the young witch in the halls and was about to give her a month worth of detention if she couldn't explain herself.

"Miss Knight had covered my eyes to protect me from whatever it was that attacked, she must have looked into the window beside us… and that was when she got petrified. By the time I was able to get my face out of her fingers, the beast was gone." The two young boys looked at each other at the mention of Artimis seeing the creature in the window in understanding, they knew what was going through the halls now.

One look at Artimis' face, Mythal felt her lips twitch in worried humor, "She looks like she is in admiration… whatever it was is either a snake or a dragon…" Both Ron and Harry flinched while Snape and Dumbledore looked at each other at that thought. Mythal hadn't even realized she had just dropped a hint about the basilisk until midway through that day; she bit her lip in hopes it wouldn't make to much harm in the storyline.

**Wake Up, to my Thanks**

It was like a fog surrounded Artimis, she could hear muffled voices but time seemed to speed on. It felt like seconds of being paralyzed that something was injected into her, first there was a sharp pain, then soothing numbing warmth that spread through her veins. As her body began to function again, Artimis' eyes fluttered and Mythal leaned over her with a glass of pumpkin juice.

With a sigh of relief as all her muscles creaked, Artimis took the drink along with the potion she had been after the night of her attack as the migraine had not passed. "How do you feel Art?" Mythal sat on the bed beside Artimis as Pomfrey went around healing everyone else as well.

"Never felt better… how is everyone?" Mythal quickly looked around to make certain no one could hear her.

"Harry defeated the basilisk last night and Lockhart is now out of the DADA job with his fraud ways exposed and his memories wiped clean…" She tilted her head towards a bed in the back where Lockhart was speaking gibberish to another nurse, asking her questions about himself. Artimis felt relieved but also sorry for the man as she settled in the raised pillows as Mythal took care of her with her own understanding in nursing. Snape and Dumbledore strolled in to check on the students and to make sure Snape's mandrake potion was working accordingly.

The lanky man paused as he met Artimis' eyes but looked away to examine Hermione as the girl was awakened. The poor young girl looked horrified to awaken to Snape's face peering over her and released a small squeak of surprise causing everyone but Snape to chuckle. "Oh you're just so adorable!" Artimis released in a hoarse funny voice causing Hermione to flush in embarrassment as the chuckling got heavier.

A week later, exams had been cancelled due to so many missing out on a full year and Lockhart not teaching to the right standards, everyone returned home on the Hogwarts express. The Knight's landlady was so happy to see them and hugged Artimis after hearing about the young woman's injury before ushering them inside to feed them up.

After an hour, the old witch left after telling Artimis she had the next few days off from work to recover. Almost the second the woman left, someone knocked on the door. Artimis had flopped on her bed in exhaustion as Mythal answered the door like usual, her voice was muffled but clear through the wall, "Hello, Professor Snape. Do you want to speak with Art?"

"If she is available…" Mythal opened Artimis' bedroom door to check on her, the young woman waved a hand from her position on her stomach to show she was awake before standing. Snape was led to the sitting area, he got a peek into Artimis' bedroom and was surprised at the green.

Looking around, the potions master took in the house and its colours while Artimis slouched into the armchair. Snape lowered himself slowly into the couch while Mythal made Artimis a powerful coffee and him a glass full of the Fire-Whiskey that Artimis had stored in the cupboards. It wasn't concentrated like Snape liked it, but still it warmed his insides. Mythal muttered something about swimmers and the pool before leaving.

The two sat in silence, Mythal finished dressing and rushed out into the pool in hopes it would break the ice between the two. For almost a minute Snape finally spoke, "I only came because Dumbledore told me to after explaining everything to me…"

"Yeah? And what does Dumbles want, Sir?" Artimis said in humor as she drank the last dregs of her coffee.

"To thank you from protecting me from the deadly stare of a Basilisk." At that Artimis almost lost her mouthful, painfully she swallowed while choking causing Snape's glare to harden even further.

"Its… fine…" She was able to choke the words out while pounding her chest, her eyes watered from the pain as she got over her surprise. Snape saying thank you for something as big s that, even in a cold tone, was something she did not expect in her lifetime here in the HP world. A curt thank you for only polite reasons was more possible but saying thank you for saving his life was completely unexpected, she had thought he would simply give her that nod of his in silent thanks instead of saying it out loud… and coming all the way to her home to say it.

In a rush, Snape sculled back his drink and gathered his robes before Artimis escorted him outside. At the front door, he gave her a polite like nod before Disapparating from her doorstep. As Artimis closed the door and returned to her bedroom to flop into the mattress, she wondered is Snape was going to be less harsh on her next year.

…She highly doubted it…

**End Chapter 5**

And the end of the "Knight Magic" Prequel, this was the first two years. This was just to give you all a little extra on the Artimis and Mythal story, and to answer any possible questions. It was also to show what I think would have happened during the first two years, and as you cans see Snape and Artimis gain their mutual friendliness earlier as they get more chances to work alone during their lessons.

The Sequel to the main story will be started now, so please be patient as I create the storyline.


	6. Information: Character FactSheets

**Information: Character Fact Sheet**

I thought I would give you a small fact sheet on my two main characters.

**Artimis Cross Knight (Miki): **She is based off of me and some of her personality is an exaggeration of mine such as her confidence. My favorite characters from J.K's novels are Severus Snape, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Hermione Granger. (And the Dragons) My favorite line is "Bloody 'ell!"

(Also Miki is my nickname not my actual name…)****

She is the main character to the story, she is sarcastic when in a bad mood, usually cheerful and makes jokes to make others feel at ease. Even with her loud attitude she favors silence quite a bit especially when writing, studying or reading, when she does these three things she hides away so no one can speak to her. She is not a morning person so she lives on coffee and has a strong one in the morning then maybe one or two weaker ones through the day, but never past 5pm for she has trouble sleeping.

Artimis is a caring person and will put others above all else, she is perceptive towards peoples feelings and can take on different 'personalities' to ease them. She is also the type that attracts people to her but she is oblivious to her magnetic comfort, people take salvation in her presence.

Artimis is never one to think of romance, she longs for love but is almost laid back about it and guys for most she knows are old wizards or younger teenagers. She never had a boyfriend in all her years so she is terrified of going into a relationship, and the age limit for a guy she likes is 20 years her elder as she is now in a world with magic and those of that world age slightly slower then Muggle's. She also, like her mother and older sister, attracts the attention of disabled people (as she has a soothing aura) or weirdo's and sicko's.

Age in 3rd year: 19

Age at the Final Battle: 24

Eyes: A mix of green, blue and grey.

Skin: Her genetically colouring is pale, but years living in Australia (her home country) slightly tanned her.

Hair: Grown almost to elbow's, naturally wavy and incredibly frizzy. She usually has it out and over her shoulders but in sport and potions she ties in in a high ponytail.

Height: 5''2

Persona: Patient, kind, loyal, cunning, funny, short tempered, clumsy, easily lost, adventurous, chivalry, laid back, tomboyish and very loving.

Blood-Status: Would be considered a Muggle-Born but due to her and Mythal's deaths they belong to no family and could choose their blood types, Artimis chose Half-Blood. She also has the blood of the werewolf in her veins.

Dress Style: Loves winter clothing and scarves (which she kind of collects) but in summer she will wear a dress as long as it is past her knees or close to them.

Favorites-  
Colours: Red, Green, turquoise and black.  
Drink: Coffee.  
Food: Pasta.  
Professors: Snape and Lupin.  
Classes: Potions, DADA, Magical Creatures and Transfiguration.  
Music: Has a fine ear for all types of music from all eras.  
Scents: Rose, Frangipani and Sandalwood.

House: Chose Gryffindor, but is more like a Hufflepuff with Slytherin qualities.

Wand: 11 inches, cedar with Phoenix feather core and is Unyielding. Is pure white with a coiling snakeskin like grip. Wood smells flowery and sweet but it is VERY temperamental and took Artimis almost a full year to gain its loyalty.

Patronus: Threstral, appears temperamental like her wand. Takes this form because of her connection to death. She learnt how to cast it at the end of year 3 from Harry Potter.

Animagus: Wedge-Tailed Eagle (Native bird of Australia and one of the largest eagles in the world) this form is ironic since Artimis has a terror of heights and is from Australia.

Boggart: Her murderer.

**Mythal Rose Knight (Amie): **She is based off of a close friend of mine, and her language is NOT exaggerated. My friend's favorite character is Draco Malfoy. Her favorite line is "FU*K My Life"

****She is a very sarcastic girl almost all times; she looks years younger then she actually is. She likes to know peoples deepest feelings and tease them for it, she is kind but says things before thinking, mostly crude things based around Artimis. Mythal is impatient and short tempered, almost the opposite of Artimis, but shares similar kinder attributes and is loyal. Mythal also has a bit of a dark prankster side to her and becomes friends with the Weasley twins before even going to Hogwarts.

Mythal is a family and friend based person and is vicious to people if those close to her are insulted even towards other friends, she also has a rather motherly personality and worries for peoples health. When she was young she was in 'nursing' group and has taken that knowledge with her into the magical world, she also loves cooking and doing barista work.

Romance is Mythal's forethought, she falls in love to fast and easily that she doesn't notice person's deeper feelings. She had suffered much heartbreak but still goes back for more blindly, as her biggest wish is for her own family that she can treat kinder then hers had.

Age in 3rd year: 13 (really 15)

Age at the Final Battle: 17 (actually 19)

Eyes: Hazel.

Skin: Naturally fair, she is paler then Artimis.

Hair: Naturally large ringlets on the ends, her natural hair colour is a dark fair blond but she constantly dyes it from blonde to Brunette and mainly a bright cherry red. It is just past her shoulders and constantly tied up into a ponytail.

Height: 5''4

Persona: Kind, sarcastic, cleaver, loving, short tempered, crude, hard working, romantic, loyal, Prankster, girly and motherly.

Blood-Status: Chose Pureblood

Dress Style: Loves plain summery clothing and dresses.

Favorites-  
Colours: Blue and Purple.  
Drink: Hot-Chocolates and Milkshakes.  
Food: BBQ and sweets.  
Professors: Snape, McGonagall and Lupin  
Classes: DADA, Transfiguration, Charms and Arithmancy.  
Music: Pop Punk, favorite band is My Chemical Romance.  
Scent: Lavender

House: Slytherin but has Gryffindor traits.

Wand: 9 ½, Rosewood with Unicorn hair core and is Flexible. It is a deep red with carvings of vines up the handle and half way up the main shaft, Mythal and her wand hit it off instantly and the wand was loyal from day one.

Patronus: Ferret, for Draco her boyfriend and future husband. Artimis taught her how to use it in sixth year but Mythal never had a reason to use it.

Boggart: The black Werewolf that attacked her and Artimis, thus turning the later into a werewolf.

This later changes to an ancient version of herself covered in dust and spider webs, alone and without children.


End file.
